django rest framework - using viewsets

Question

I read about the viewsets in django, but haven't fully understood everything..

When using a viewset in django, for example -

class SnippetViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    This viewset automatically provides `list`, `create`, `retrieve`,
    `update` and `destroy` actions.

    Additionally we also provide an extra `highlight` action.
    """
    queryset = Snippet.objects.all()
    serializer_class = SnippetSerializer
    permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly,
                          IsOwnerOrReadOnly,)

    @detail_route(renderer_classes=[renderers.StaticHTMLRenderer])
    def highlight(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        snippet = self.get_object()
        return Response(snippet.highlighted)

and Routing is like this

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'snippets', views.SnippetViewSet)

In the comments in the View they say - "This viewset automatically provides list, create, retrieve,update and destroy actions."

EDIT:::

 @detail_route(methods=['post'])
    def register(request):
        serializer = UserSerializer(data=request.DATA)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            user = User.objects.create_user(
                username = serializer.init_data['username'],
                password = serializer.init_data['password'],
            )

            return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        else:
            return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

• How do I access each one of those methods? and How do I access the highlight method?
• The url registered in the router is /snippets. Do I do snippets/create? or snippets/delete?
• What does the ModelViewSet actually does to the url structure?

Answer 1

You access those actions by specifying the corresponding HTTP method, which is a core idea in REST. Namely, using the HTTP methods to do what their name implies.

• GET /snippets/ - list the snippet objects
• POST /snippets/ with POST data - create a new object
• PATCH /snippets/ with data - create a new object
• GET /snippets/42 - retrieve object with a primary key of 42
• PUT/PATCH /snippets/42 - update object with the primary key of 42
• DELETE /snippets/42 - delete object with the primary key of 42

To see all the generated and inferred URL regexes, put Django in debug mode and issue a request to an invalid URL. It will print out something like:

Using the URLconf defined in my_app.urls, Django tried these URL patterns, in this order:
^ ^$ [name='api-root']
^ ^\.(?P<format>[a-z0-9]+)$ [name='api-root']
^ ^AltEmail/$ [name='altemail-list']
^ ^AltEmail/\.(?P<format>[a-z0-9]+)$ [name='altemail-list']
^ ^AltEmail/(?P<pk>[^/.]+)/$ [name='altemail-detail']
^ ^AltEmail/(?P<pk>[^/.]+)/\.(?P<format>[a-z0-9]+)$ [name='altemail-detail']
[...]