drf-commons

drf-commons is a utility library for Django REST Framework that adds audit tracking, standardized responses, bulk operations, configurable serializer fields, and import/export — built on DRF’s own extension points without replacing its internals.

Philosophy

drf-commons is not a framework replacement. It extends DRF using its own documented extension points, leaving DRF’s existing behavior intact. Each component is a mixin: independently usable, explicitly opted-in, and composable to suit exactly what your API needs.

Getting Started

Getting Started

• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Core Installation
  • Optional Feature Sets
  • Development Installation
  • Django Application Setup
  • Configuration Namespace
  • Verifying Installation
• Quickstart
  • Defining a Model
  • Defining a Serializer
  • Defining a ViewSet
  • Registering Routes
  • Enabling Bulk Operations
  • Response Format
  • Next Steps

Core Reference

Core Reference

• Architecture
  • System Layers
  • Package Structure
  • Design Decisions
  • Extension Points
• Core Concepts
  • The Composable Mixin Pattern
  • Standardized Response Envelopes
  • Context-Local User Resolution
  • Soft Deletion
  • Optimistic Locking
  • Bulk Operation Modes
  • Configurable Serializer Fields
  • Settings Namespace
• Model Mixins
  • Base Mixins
  • Content Mixins
  • Person Mixins
  • Model Fields
  • Mixin Composition Examples
• Views
  • Pre-Composed ViewSets
  • CRUD Mixins
  • Bulk Operation Mixins
  • Import/Export Mixins
  • Custom ViewSet Composition
• Serializers
  • BaseModelSerializer
  • BulkUpdateListSerializer
  • Configurable Field Types
  • Field Usage Examples
  • Building Custom Field Types
• Responses
  • Response Envelope Structure
  • Response Utility Functions
  • Automatic Response Formatting
  • Pagination Response Format
• Exceptions
  • Package Exceptions
  • DRF Exception Integration
  • ImproperlyConfigured Errors
• Middlewares
  • CurrentUserMiddleware
  • Debug Middlewares
  • Middleware Order Reference
• Pagination
  • StandardPageNumberPagination
  • LimitOffsetPaginationWithFormat
  • Pagination Control per Request
  • Paginated Response Structure
• Filters
  • ComputedOrderingFilter
  • Combining with DRF Filter Backends
• Decorators
  • api_request_logger
  • log_function_call
  • log_exceptions
  • log_db_query
  • api_performance_monitor
  • cache_debug
  • Combining Decorators

Advanced Topics

Advanced Topics

• Services
  • File Export Service
  • File Import Service
• Current User
  • Motivation
  • Public API
  • Internal API
  • Usage Outside Request Context
  • Testing with Context User
• Utilities
  • Debug Package
  • Middleware Checker
  • Template Tags
  • Test Utilities
• Extensibility
  • Custom ViewSet Compositions
  • Extending Model Mixins
  • Custom Serializer Fields
  • Custom Response Envelope
  • Custom Pagination
  • Custom Settings
  • Extending the Import Pipeline
• Testing
  • Test Factories
  • APIRequestFactoryWithUser
  • Testing with Context User
  • Testing ViewSets
  • Testing Soft Deletes
  • Testing Version Conflicts
  • Integration Tests

Operations

Operations

• Production Usage
  • Stability Guarantees
  • WSGI and ASGI Deployment
  • Database Considerations
  • Caching
  • Security
  • Monitoring and Observability
  • Integration with Large Systems
• Best Practices
  • Model Design
  • Serializer Design
  • ViewSet Design
  • Bulk Operations
  • File Import/Export
  • Performance
  • Testing
• Development
  • Environment Setup
  • Makefile Commands
  • Code Style
  • Running Tests
  • Building Documentation
  • Project Structure for Contributors
  • Pull Request Guidelines
  • Publishing to PyPI

Appendices

Appendices

• Changelog
• Contributing

Indices and Tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page