Fastapi

What is Fastapi ?

Fastapi is a modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python 3.7+ based on standard Python type hints. It is designed to be fast, scalable, and easy to use, making it ideal for building APIs with features like automatic API documentation, strong typing, and asynchronous capabilities.

Features

• Automatic API Documentation: Fastapi automatically generates interactive API documentation using Swagger UI and Redoc.
• Standard Python Type Hints: Leverages Python type hints for validating request bodies, query parameters, and more.
• High Performance: Built on top of ASGI and Pydantic, enabling high-speed performance for building APIs.
• Scalable: Designed to build scalable and maintainable applications.
• Websocket Support: Supports Websocket communication for real-time applications.
• Asynchronous Programming: Full support for asynchronous programming, allowing you to write non-blocking code.
• Automatic Validation and Serialization: Provides automatic request validation and response serialization based on type hints.
• Strong Typing: Enforces type safety, reducing runtime errors and improving code quality.
• Integrated CORS Middleware: Simplifies handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS).
• Rate Limiting: Built-in support for rate limiting to protect your API from abuse.
• Compatibility: Compatible with Python 3.7 and above, including some features from Python 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10.

How to use Fastapi ?

1. Install Fastapi and Uvicorn
   Run the following command in your terminal:

   pip install fastapi uvicorn
   

2. Create a File
   Create a .py file, e.g., main.py, and import FastAPI:

   from fastapi import FastAPI
   app = FastAPI()
   

3. Write Your First Route
   Add a simple route to your application:

   @app.get('/')
   def root():
       return {'message': 'Hello, World!'}
   

4. Run the Application
   Run the application using Uvicorn:

   uvicorn main:app --reload
   

5. Access the API
   Open your browser or use a tool like curl to access http://localhost:8000 for the API endpoint or http://localhost:8000/docs to view the auto-generated documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key features of Fastapi?
Fastapi offers automatic API documentation, Python type hints for validation, high performance, and asynchronous programming. It also supports Websockets and includes built-in CORS middleware and rate limiting.

How do I install Fastapi?
To install Fastapi, run the following command:
pip install fastapi uvicorn

Why is Fastapi fast?
Fastapi is fast because it's built on ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) and uses Pydantic for data validation. It also leverages modern Python features like type hints for high performance.