How to delete an object using Django Rest Framework

Question

I am trying to write an RESTful API for my event planning app using Django Rest Framework but I am having some trouble when using views that do not expect the GET HTTP method. I have read through the tutorial on the DRF site. From what I understand after reading through the tutorial and the class based view documentation on the Django site is that if there is a class based view like this (taken from the DRF tutorial)

class SnippetDetail(APIView):     """     Retrieve, update or delete a snippet instance.     """     def get_object(self, pk):         try:             return Snippet.objects.get(pk=pk)         except Snippet.DoesNotExist:             raise Http404      def get(self, request, pk, format=None):         snippet = self.get_object(pk)         serializer = SnippetSerializer(snippet)         return Response(serializer.data)      def put(self, request, pk, format=None):         snippet = self.get_object(pk)         serializer = SnippetSerializer(snippet, data=request.DATA)         if serializer.is_valid():             serializer.save()             return Response(serializer.data)         return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)      def delete(self, request, pk, format=None):         snippet = self.get_object(pk)         snippet.delete()         return Response(status=status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT)  

The different methods in the view correspond to the different HTTP Request methods. So if I have www.foo.com/bar it would do two different things based on what request method is sent to that address. So that means that I wouldn't have to specify anything else because the function that is executed is determined based on the method the URL is sent with. Is this correct?

I have this view which I tried to model after the example on the DRF site

class EventDetail(APIView):      """     Retrieve, update or delete a event instance.     """      def get_object(self, pk):         try:             return Event.objects.get(pk=pk)         except Event.DoesNotExist:             raise Http404      def get(self, request, pk, format=None):         event = self.get_object(pk)         serializer = EventSerializer(event)         return Response(serializer.data)      def post(self, request, format=None):         serializer = EventSerializer(data=request.DATA)         if serializer.is_valid():             serializer.save()             return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)         return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)      # def put(self, request, pk, format=None):     #     event = self.get_object(pk)     #     serializer = EventSerializer(event, data=request.DATA)     #     if serializer.is_valid():     #         serializer.save()     #         return Response(serializer.data)     #     return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)      def delete(self, request, pk, format=None):         event = self.get_object(pk)         event.delete()         return Response(status=status.HTTP_204_NO_CONTENT 

which maps to these URLs

urlpatterns = patterns('',                         # Get event                        url(r'^(?P<pk>\d+)/$', views.EventDetail.as_view(),                            name='create_events'),                        # list all events                        url(r'^list/$', views.EventList.as_view(),                            name='list_events'),                        # url(r'^update$/(?P<pk>\d+)', #update event),                        url(r'^create/$', views.EventDetail.as_view(),                            name='create_events'),                        # delete event                        url(r'^delete$/(?P<pk>\d+)',                            views.EventDetail.as_view(), name='delete_event'),                         ) 

which I am trying to test using CURL with this command (like suggested here DELETE using CURL with encoded URL)

curl -X DELETE "http://127.0.0.1:8000/events/delete/1" 

This will seem to do what it should:

[18/Oct/2014 22:41:27] "DELETE /events/delete/1 HTTP/1.1" 404 2707 

But the actual record is not deleted from my database

Is there something here that I am forgetting to do to get these to get this to work properly?

Answer 1

You're being redundant. The HTTP method is already DELETE, so there's no /events/delete in the url. Try this:

curl -X DELETE "http://127.0.0.1:8000/events/1/" 

By default, DRF's router creates detailed urls at /event/<pk> and you GET, PUT, POST and DELETE them to retrieve, update, create and delete respectively.