Preface

REST (Representational State Transfer) is the architectural style that is driving modern web development and mobile apps. In fact, developing and interacting with RESTful Web Services is a required skill in any modern software development job. Sometimes, you have to interact with an existing API and in other cases, you have to design a RESTful API from scratch and make it work with JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

Python is one of the most popular programming languages. Python 3.5 is the most modern version of Python. It is open source, multiplatform, and you can use it to develop any kind of application, from websites to extremely complex scientific computing applications. There is always a Python package that makes things easier for you to avoid reinventing the wheel and solve the problems faster. The most important and popular Cloud computing providers make it easy to work with Python and its related Web frameworks. Thus, Python is an ideal choice for developing RESTful Web Services. The book covers all the things you need to know to select the most appropriate Python Web framework and develop a RESTful API from scratch.

You will work with the three most popular Python web frameworks that make it easy to develop RESTful Web Services: Django, Flask, and Tornado. Each web framework has its advantages and tradeoffs. You will work with examples that represent appropriate cases for each of these Web frameworks, in combination with additional Python packages that will simplify the most common tasks. You will learn to use different tools to test and develop high-quality, consistent and scalable RESTful Web Services. You will also take advantage of object-oriented programming, also known as OOP, to maximize code reuse and minimize maintenance costs.

You will always write unit tests and improve test coverage for all of the RESTful Web Services that you will develop throughout the book. You won’t just run the sample code but you will also make sure that you write tests for your RESTful API.

This book will allow you to learn how to take advantage of many packages that will simplify the most common tasks related to RESTful Web Services. You will be able to start creating your own RESTful APIs for any domain in any of the covered Web frameworks in Python 3.5 or greater.