README

# NO LONGER MAINTAINED

This repository is no longer maintained due to lack of time.

You might check out the fork https://github.com/mrevutskyi/flask-restless-ng instead.

# Flask-Restless #

## Introduction ##

This is Flask-Restless, a [Flask][1] extension that creates URL endpoints that
satisfy the requirements of the [JSON API][2] specification. It is compatible
with models that have been defined using either [SQLAlchemy][3] or
[Flask-SQLAlchemy][4].

This document contains some brief instructions concerning installation of
requirements, installation of this extension, configuration and usage of this
extension, and building of documentation.

For more information, see the

  * [documentation][5],
  * [Python Package Index listing][6],
  * [source code repository][7].

[![Build status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/jfinkels/flask-restless.png)](https://travis-ci.org/jfinkels/flask-restless)

[1]: http://flask.pocoo.org
[2]: https://jsonapi.org
[3]: https://sqlalchemy.org
[4]: https://packages.python.org/Flask-SQLAlchemy
[5]: https://flask-restless.readthedocs.org
[6]: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Flask-Restless
[7]: https://github.com/jfinkels/flask-restless

## Copyright license ##

The code comprising this program is copyright 2011 Lincoln de Sousa and
copyright 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Jeffrey Finkelstein and contributors,
and is dual-licensed under the following two copyright licenses:

* the GNU Affero General Public License, either version 3 or (at your option)
  any later version
* the 3-clause BSD License

For more information, see the files `LICENSE.AGPL` and `LICENSE.BSD` in this
directory.

The documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 license.

## Contents ##

This is a partial listing of the contents of this package.

* `LICENSE.AGPL` - one possible copyright license under which this program is
  distributed to you (the GNU Affero General Public License version 3)
* `LICENSE.BSD` - another possible copyright license under which this program
  is distributed to you (the 3-clause BSD License)
* `docs/` - the Sphinx documentation for Flask-Restless
* `examples/` - example applications of Flask-Restless
* `flask_restless/` - the Python package containing the extension
* `MANIFEST.in` - indicates files to include when packaging Flask-Restless
* `README.md` - this file
* `setup.py` - Python setuptools configuration file for packaging this
  extension
* `tests/` - unit tests for Flask-Restless

The `flask_restless` directory is a Python package containing the following
files and directory:

* `helpers.py` - utility functions, mainly for performing introspection on
  SQLAlchemy objects
* `manager.py` - contains the main class that end users will utilize to create
  ReSTful JSON APIs for their database models
* `search.py` - functions and classes that facilitate searching the database
  on requests that require a search
* `serialization.py` - basic serialization and deserialization for SQLAlchemy
  models
* `views/` - the view classes that implement the JSON API interface

## Installing ##

This application can be used with any Python version that Flask supports, which
currently includes versions 2.6, 2.7, 3.3, and 3.4. (Python 3.2 is not
supported by Flask and therefore cannot be supported by Flask-Restless.)

This application requires the following libraries to be installed:

* [Flask][1] version 0.10 or greater
* [SQLAlchemy][3] version 0.8 or greater
* [python-dateutil][8] version strictly greater than 2.2
* [mimerender][9] version 0.5.2 or greater

These requirements (and some additional optional packages) are also listed in
the `requirements/install.txt` file. Using `pip` is probably the easiest way to
install these:

    pip install -r requirements/install.txt

[8]: https://labix.org/python-dateutil
[9]: https://github.com/martinblech/mimerender

## Building as a Python egg ##

This package can be built, installed, etc. as a Python egg using the provided
`setup.py` script. For more information, run

    python setup.py --help

## How to use ##

For information on how to use this extension, build the documentation here or
[view it on the Web][5].

## Testing ##

If your Python interpreter is `cpython`, run:

    pip install -r requirements/test-cpython.txt

Otherwise, if your Python interpreter is `pypy`, run:

    pip install -r requirements/test-pypy.txt

To run the tests:

    python setup.py test

## Building documentation ##

Flask-Restless requires the following program and supporting library to build
the documentation:

* [Sphinx][10]
* [sphinxcontrib-httpdomain][11], version 1.1.7 or greater

These requirements are also listed in the `requirements/doc.txt` file. Using
`pip` is probably the easiest way to install these:

    pip install -r requirements/doc.txt

The documentation is written for Sphinx in [reStructuredText][12] files in the
`docs/` directory. Documentation for each class and function is provided in the
docstring in the code.

The documentation uses the Flask Sphinx theme. It is included as a git
submodule of this project, rooted at `docs/_themes`. To get the themes, do

    git submodule update --init

Now to build the documentation, run the command

    python setup.py build_sphinx

in the top-level directory. The output can be viewed in a web browser by
opening `build/sphinx/html/index.html`.

[10]: http://sphinx.pocoo.org/
[11]: https://packages.python.org/sphinxcontrib-httpdomain/
[12]: https://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html

## Contributing ##

Please report any issues on the [GitHub Issue Tracker][13].

To suggest a change to the code or documentation, please create a new pull
request on GitHub. Contributed code must come with an appropriate unit
test. Please ensure that your code follows [PEP8][14], by running, for example,
[flake8][15] before submitting a pull request. Also, please squash multiple
commits into a single commit in your pull request by [rebasing][16] onto the
master branch.

By contributing to this project, you are agreeing to license your code
contributions under both the GNU Affero General Public License, either version
3 or any later version, and the 3-clause BSD License, and your documentation
contributions under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License version
4.0, as described in the copyright license section above.

[13]: http://github.com/jfinkels/flask-restless/issues
[14]: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/
[15]: http://flake8.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
[16]: https://help.github.com/articles/about-git-rebase/

## Artwork ##

The `artwork/flask-restless-small.svg` and
`docs/_static/flask-restless-small.png` are licensed under the [Creative
Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 4.0 license][17]. The original image is a scan of
a (now public domain) illustration by Arthur Hopkins in a serial edition of
"The Return of the Native" by Thomas Hardy published in October 1878.

The `artwork/flask-restless.svg` and `docs/_static/flask-restless.png` are
licensed under the [Flask Artwork License][18].

[17]: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
[18]: http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/license/#flask-artwork-license

## Contact ##

Jeffrey Finkelstein <jeffrey.finkelstein@gmail.com>