JSON API Design Prototype

valentine.py

# Just a prototype of a JSON API framework that I thought up because it'd be nice to have
# for API work I've done before - feedback very much welcome. 
#
# all models have a 'short' and a full version

@canonical_url('/users/:id')
class User(Model): # this model is both an ORM-style model and a REST resource.
  id = ModelField.Integer(unique=True)
  name = ModelField.String(length=25)
  email = ModelField.String(length=55, in_short=None)
  listing = ModelField.Reference('Listing', in_short=None, in_full="link") # other options: [None, Link, Short, Full]
  password = ModelField.HashedString(length=255, hide_from_api=True)

  # the 'user' method isn't strictly necessary (it would have been auto-generated
  # via smart defaults from @canonical_url class decorator)
  @expose(path="/users/:id", format="full")
  def user(self, id):
    return cls.objects.get(id=id) 
  """{"id"=1,
      "name"="Bob Graham",
      "url"="http://website.com/user/1",
      "email"="[email protected]",
      "listing"="http://website.com/listing/1"
     }"""


  @expose(path="/users", format="short")
  def users(self):
    return cls.objects.all() #automatically as JSON
  """
  [{"id"=1,
     "name"="Bob Graham",
     "url"="http://website.com/user/1"},
    {"id"=2,
     "name"="Sally Fields",
     "url"="http://website.com/user/2"}
   ]
   """


   @expose(path="/listings/:listing_id/owner", format="full")
   def owner_of_listing(self, listing_id):
     return Listing.objects.get(id=listing_id).owner
   """{"id"=1,
      "name"="Bob Graham",
      "url"="http://website.com/user/1",
      "email"="[email protected]",
      "listing"="http://website.com/listing/1"
     }"""


# ideas for a more advanced version:
# 
# class User(Model):
#   ...
#   listing = ModelField.Reference('listing', in_short=None, in_full="link", follow_on="listing")
#   ...
#
# and then, whenever the dispatcher has brought us to a User at some arbitrary path "/a/b/c", 
# we can do "/a/b/c/listing" to get that user's listing (and, if you wanted to be silly
# and set it up in both directions, "/a/b/c/listing/user/listing/user/...")
#
# Not yet addressed: 
# - attributes which can be GET/PUT/POST/DELETEd based on user's permission level