[Django] Use MessagePack with Django REST framework

Use MessagePack with Django REST framework

By default, the HTTP request / response of the Django REST framework application assumes JSON. JSON is good, but you want to use MessagePack.

To change this, set Parsers / Renderers.

Request --Parsers Response --Renderers

MessagePack is not supported by default, but the documentation says to use djangorestframework-msgpack.

MessagePack is a fast, efficient binary serialization format.
Juan Riaza maintains the djangorestframework-msgpack package which provides MessagePack renderer and parser support for REST framework.

djangorestframework-msgpack

Install djangorestframework-msgpack.

pip install djangorestframework-msgpack

Set setting.py to use MessagePack.

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_msgpack.parsers.MessagePackParser',
    ),
    'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_msgpack.renderers.MessagePackRenderer',
    ),
}

You are now using MessagePack.

The rest is a bonus.

Also use Django REST Swagger

I'm using Django REST Swagger, but I don't know how to use MessagePack.

• Please let me know if you know.

Therefore, in the environment that uses Swagger (here, when DEBUG = True), JSON is also available.

if DEBUG == True:
    REST_FRAMEWORK = {
        'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES': (
            'rest_framework_msgpack.parsers.MessagePackParser',
            'rest_framework.parsers.JSONParser',
        ),
        'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
            'rest_framework_msgpack.renderers.MessagePackRenderer',
            'rest_framework.renderers.JSONRenderer',
            'rest_framework.renderers.BrowsableAPIRenderer',
        ),
    }
else:
    REST_FRAMEWORK = {
        'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES': (
            'rest_framework_msgpack.parsers.MessagePackParser',
        ),
        'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
            'rest_framework_msgpack.renderers.MessagePackRenderer',
        ),
    }

The order is important. Since the top is the main, I will write the Message Pack as the main.

BrowsableAPIRenderer is for this. I'm not using it now, but I put it in.

Communication test is done with MessagePack

Write to use MessagePack when testing communication. It doesn't make sense to test with JSON.

import msgpack

from django.test import TestCase

class ApiUsersTestCase(TestCase):
    def test_put_users_pk_ok(self):
        """
For example, an API that sets user parameters
Since it is an image, only a simple test
        """
        
        pk = 1
        params = {
            "name": "Playing cards"
        }

        response = self.client.put("/users/{0}/".format(pk), msgpack.packb(params, use_bin_type=True), "application/msgpack")
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 201)
        
        content = msgpack.unpackb(response.content, encoding='utf-8')
        self.assertEqual(content["name"], params["name"])