7 Hidden Gem Django REST Framework Libraries You Should Know About!

Django REST Framework (DRF) is the go-to tool for building powerful APIs in Django. While DRF provides great built-in features, there are several hidden gem libraries that can help you optimize, secure, and supercharge your API development.

Let’s explore 7 must-know DRF libraries that every Django developer should have in their toolkit! 🔥

1. drf-spectacular — Auto-Generate Beautiful API Docs

Stop writing API docs manually! drf-spectacular generates fully detailed OpenAPI/Swagger documentation automatically.

docs : https://github.com/tfranzel/drf-spectacular

Installation

$ pip install drf-spectacular

Example

# settings.py 
INSTALLED_APPS = [ 
    'drf_spectacular', 
] 
 
REST_FRAMEWORK = { 
    "DEFAULT_SCHEMA_CLASS": "drf_spectacular.openapi.AutoSchema", 
} 
 
SPECTACULAR_SETTINGS = { 
    'TITLE': 'Your Project API', 
    'DESCRIPTION': 'Your project description', 
    'VERSION': '1.0.0', 
    'SERVE_INCLUDE_SCHEMA': False, 
}

# urls.py  
from drf_spectacular.views import SpectacularAPIView, SpectacularRedocView, SpectacularSwaggerView 
 
urlpatterns = [ 
    # YOUR PATTERNS 
    path('api/schema/', SpectacularAPIView.as_view(), name='schema'), 
    # Optional UI: 
    path('api/schema/swagger-ui/', SpectacularSwaggerView.as_view(url_name='schema'), name='swagger-ui'), 
    path('api/schema/redoc/', SpectacularRedocView.as_view(url_name='schema'), name='redoc'), 
]

This will generates Swagger, Redoc, and OpenAPI docs. It supports authentication & permissions and fully Customizable with schema extensions.

You can access your API docs at:

• Swagger : /api/schema/swagger-ui/
• redoc : /api/schema/redoc/

2. drf-nested-routers — Create Nested API Endpoints

Django REST Framework doesn’t support nested routes by default. This package fixes that by allowing URLs like:

docs : https://github.com/alanjds/drf-nested-routers

Installation

pip install drf-nested-routers

Example

The desired URL signatures are:

/domains/ <- Domains list 
/domains/{pk}/ <- One domain, from {pk} 
/domains/{domain_pk}/nameservers/ <- Nameservers of domain from {domain_pk} 
/domains/{domain_pk}/nameservers/{pk} <- Specific nameserver from {pk}, of domain from {domain_pk}

How to do it :

# urls.py 
from rest_framework_nested import routers 
from views import DomainViewSet, NameserverViewSet 
 
router = routers.SimpleRouter() 
router.register(r'domains', DomainViewSet) 
 
domains_router = routers.NestedSimpleRouter(router, r'domains', lookup='domain') 
domains_router.register(r'nameservers', NameserverViewSet, basename='domain-nameservers') 
# 'basename' is optional. Needed only if the same viewset is registered more than once 
# Official DRF docs on this option: http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/routers/ 
 
urlpatterns = [ 
    path(r'', include(router.urls)), 
    path(r'', include(domains_router.urls)), 
]

3. drf-flex-fields — Optimize API Responses

Instead of returning unnecessary data, let users choose which fields to include or expand in responses.

docs : https://github.com/rsinger86/drf-flex-fields

Installation

pip install drf-flex-fields

Example

# serializers.py 
from rest_flex_fields import FlexFieldsModelSerializer 
 
class StateSerializer(FlexFieldsModelSerializer): 
    class Meta: 
        model = State 
        fields = ('id', 'name') 
 
class CountrySerializer(FlexFieldsModelSerializer): 
    class Meta: 
        model = Country 
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'population', 'states') 
        expandable_fields = { 
          'states': (StateSerializer, {'many': True}) 
        } 
 
class PersonSerializer(FlexFieldsModelSerializer): 
    class Meta: 
        model = Person 
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'country', 'occupation') 
        expandable_fields = {'country': CountrySerializer}

GET /people/142/

If the default serialized response is the following:

{ 
  "id": 142, 
  "name": "Jim Halpert", 
  "country": 1 
}

When you do a GET /person/142?expand=country.state, the response will change to:

GET /people/142/?expand=country.states

{ 
  "id": 142, 
  "name": "Jim Halpert", 
  "country": { 
    "id": 1, 
    "name": "United States", 
    "states": [ 
      { 
        "id": 23, 
        "name": "Ohio" 
      }, 
      { 
        "id": 2, 
        "name": "Pennsylvania" 
      } 
    ] 
  } 
}

4. drf-turbo — High-Performance JSON Serialization

Need faster API responses? drf-turbo provides blazing-fast JSON serialization using optimized Python techniques.

docs : https://github.com/Mng-dev-ai/drf-turbo

Installation

$ pip install drf-turbo

Example

import drf_turbo as dt 
 
class UserSerializer(dt.Serializer): 
    class Meta: 
        model = User 
        fields = ["id", "name", "email"]

This is up to 10x faster than default DRF serializers. It Supports nested relationships and easy drop-in replacement for existing serializers.

5. django-rest-knox — Secure Token Authentication

DRF default token auth isn’t secure enough for production apps. knox provides more secure, time-limited tokens.

docs : https://jazzband.github.io/django-rest-knox/installation/

Installation

pip install django-rest-knox

Example

# settings.py 
INSTALLED_APPS = [ 
  ... 
  'rest_framework', 
  'knox', 
  ... 
] 
 
REST_FRAMEWORK = { 
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': ('knox.auth.TokenAuthentication',), 
    ... 
}

python manage.py migrate

# views.py 
from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated 
from rest_framework.response import Response 
from rest_framework.views import APIView 
 
from knox.auth import TokenAuthentication 
 
class ExampleAPIView(APIView): 
    authentication_classes = (TokenAuthentication,) 
    permission_classes = (IsAuthenticated,) 
 
    def get(self, request, format=None): 
        content = { 
            'foo': 'bar' 
        } 
        return Response(content)

This Standardized the API responses, supports compound documents and Works with DRF serializers.

6. doser — Handle Authentication

djoser library provides a set of Django Rest Framework views to handle basic actions such as registration, login, logout, password reset and account activation. It works with custom user model.

docs : https://djoser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html

Installation

pip install -U djoser

Example

# settings.py 
INSTALLED_APPS = ( 
    'django.contrib.auth', 
    'rest_framework', 
    'djoser', 
) 
 
REST_FRAMEWORK = { 
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': ( 
        'rest_framework.authentication.TokenAuthentication', 
    ), 
} 
 
# urls.py 
urlpatterns = [ 
    re_path(r'^auth/', include('djoser.urls')), 
    re_path(r'^auth/', include('djoser.urls.authtoken')), 
]

python manage.py migrate

Register a new user:

$ curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8088/auth/users/ --data 'username=djoser&password=alpine12' 
{"email": "", "username": "djoser", "id":1}

Let’s log in:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8088/auth/token/login/ --data 'username=djoser&password=alpine12' 
{"auth_token": "b704c9fc3655635646356ac2950269f352ea1139"}

We have just obtained an authorization token that we may use later in order to retrieve specific resources.

Let’s access user’s details by using the authentication token:

$ curl -LX GET http://127.0.0.1:8088/auth/users/me/ -H 'Authorization: Token b704c9fc3655635646356ac2950269f352ea1139' 
{"email": "", "username": "djoser", "id": 1}

Yay, it works!

Now let’s log out:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8088/auth/token/logout/  --data 'b704c9fc3655635646356ac2950269f352ea1139' -H 'Authorization: Token b704c9fc3655635646356ac2950269f352ea1139'

7. drf-jsonapi — JSON API Specification Support

This library formats API responses according to the JSON:API standard.

docs : https://django-rest-framework-json-api.readthedocs.io/en/stable/getting-started.html

Installation

pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi 
 
# for optional package integrations 
pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['django-filter'] 
pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['django-polymorphic'] 
pip install djangorestframework-jsonapi['openapi']

Example

# settings.py 
INSTALLED_APPS = [ 
    ... 
    'rest_framework', 
    'rest_framework_json_api', 
    ... 
] 
 
REST_FRAMEWORK = { 
    "DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES": [ 
        "rest_framework_json_api.renderers.JSONRenderer", 
    ], 
}

Conclusion

These 7 hidden gem DRF libraries will boost your productivity, optimize performance, and simplify API development.

📌 Which library do you plan to use first? Drop a comment below! 🚀