Deleting a To-Do

Introduction

Welcome to our final lesson in the "Implementing API for TODO App with Django" course. Today, we will be focusing on the Delete operation, the last part of the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) setup. Deleting a To-Do item is crucial for maintaining the relevance and accuracy of our To-Do list. For instance, once you complete a task in a To-Do list, you want to remove it from the list to keep things clean and focused on what remains to be done.

Creating the Delete API View

To delete a To-Do item, we need to create a view that handles the delete operation. Django REST framework provides a generic view class called DestroyAPIView, which we can utilize to implement this functionality. Here is the code to create the TodoDelete view in views.py : Python from rest_framework import generics from .models import Todo from .serializers import TodoSerializer class TodoDelete(generics.DestroyAPIView): queryset = Todo.objects.all() serializer_class = TodoSerializer from rest_framework import generics from .models import Todo from .serializers import TodoSerializer class TodoDelete(generics.DestroyAPIView): queryset = Todo.objects.all() serializer_class = TodoSerializer DestroyAPIView : This is a generic class provided by Django REST framework that supports the HTTP DELETE method, which is used to delete a resource. queryset : This defines the list of To-Do items from which the delete operation will retrieve the item to be deleted. serializer_class : This defines the serializer linked to the model, ensuring the correct serialization and validation of data.

Updating URL Configuration

Now that we have our delete view, we need to update the URL configuration to make this view accessible. Let's define the URL path for the delete operation in urls.py : Python from django.urls import path from .views import TodoDelete, TodoUpdate, TodoListCreate, TodoDetail urlpatterns = [path('todos/', TodoListCreate.as_view(), name='todo_list_create'), path('todos/delete/<int:pk>/', TodoDelete.as_view(), name='todo_delete'), # New URL path('todos/update/<int:pk>/', TodoUpdate.as_view(), name='todo_update'), path('todos/<int:pk>/', TodoDetail.as_view(), name='todo_detail'),] from django.urls import path from .views import TodoDelete, TodoUpdate, TodoListCreate, TodoDetail urlpatterns = [path('todos/', TodoListCreate.as_view(), name='todo_list_create'), path('todos/delete/<int:pk>/', TodoDelete.as_view(), name='todo_delete'), # New URL path('todos/update/<int:pk>/', TodoUpdate.as_view(), name='todo_update'), path('todos/<int:pk>/', TodoDetail.as_view(), name='todo_detail'),] We map the URL pattern /todo/delete/<int:pk>/ to our TodoDelete view, where <int:pk> is a placeholder for the unique identifier of the To-Do item to be deleted. TodoListCreate and TodoDetail paths are also included to handle list, create, and detail operations, respectively, they are the same as in the previous lesson.

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Python

from rest_framework import generics
from .models import Todo
from .serializers import TodoSerializer

class TodoDelete(generics.DestroyAPIView):
    queryset = Todo.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TodoSerializer

Python

from django.urls import path
from .views import TodoDelete, TodoUpdate, TodoListCreate, TodoDetail

urlpatterns = [
    path('todos/', TodoListCreate.as_view(), name='todo_list_create'),
    path('todos/delete/<int:pk>/', TodoDelete.as_view(), name='todo_delete'),   # New URL
    path('todos/update/<int:pk>/', TodoUpdate.as_view(), name='todo_update'),
    path('todos/<int:pk>/', TodoDetail.as_view(), name='todo_detail'),
]

Python

import requests

URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/todos/'

# Create a new To-Do item to ensure the database is not empty
new_todo = {'task': 'Task to delete'}
post_response = requests.post(URL, json=new_todo)
print(post_response.json())  # Expect to see the newly created TODO item

# Delete the newly created To-Do item
todo_id = post_response.json()['id']
delete_url = f'{URL}delete/{todo_id}/'
delete_response = requests.delete(delete_url)
print(delete_response.status_code)  # Expect 204 No Content status code

# Verify deletion by trying to retrieve the deleted To-Do item
get_response = requests.get(f'{URL}{todo_id})
print(get_response.status_code)  # Expect 404 Not Found status code

import requests

URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/todos/'

# Create a new To-Do item to ensure the database is not empty
new_todo = {'task': 'Task to delete'}
post_response = requests.post(URL, json=new_todo)
print(post_response.json())  # Expect to see the newly created TODO item

# Delete the newly created To-Do item
todo_id = post_response.json()['id']
delete_url = f'{URL}delete/{todo_id}/'
delete_response = requests.delete(delete_url)
print(delete_response.status_code)  # Expect 204 No Content status code

# Verify deletion by trying to retrieve the deleted To-Do item
get_response = requests.get(f'{URL}{todo_id})
print(get_response.status_code)  # Expect 404 Not Found status code

Python

import requests

URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/todos/'

# Create a new To-Do item to ensure the database is not empty
new_todo = {'task': 'Task to delete'}
post_response = requests.post(URL, json=new_todo)
print(post_response.json())  # Expect to see the newly created TODO item

# Delete the newly created To-Do item
todo_id = post_response.json()['id']
delete_url = f'{URL}delete/{todo_id}/'
delete_response = requests.delete(delete_url)
print(delete_response.status_code)  # Expect 204 No Content status code

# Verify deletion by trying to retrieve the deleted To-Do item
get_response = requests.get(f'{URL}{todo_id})
print(get_response.status_code)  # Expect 404 Not Found status code

Introduction

Creating the Delete API View

Updating URL Configuration

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Sending a Delete Request

Summary and Next Steps