Last summer, I decided to learn how to build my own API. I’d had plenty of exposure to using APIs and writing how-to guides about APIs, but I wanted to build one myself. Having a deeper understanding of APIs would be an asset in any future technical writing role, and I always enjoy a good challenge. I understand how endpoints work, but how do developers actually build the endpoints? I know what JWT authentication is, but how is that implemented in the code? I wanted to get the answers to these questions.

I built the API with the Django REST framework. I picked this framework because I am most familiar with Python.

Length of project

July 2024 - current

API overview

The Brew Ha Ha API is an API for managing snack and drink orders at a café-style establishment. It allows customers to:

• Browse available snacks and drinks
• Place orders containing one or more items
• Retrieve details of orders

The project is structured with separate Django apps for snacks, drinks, and orders. The API uses Django REST Framework serializers and views to handle data input and output.

There are some improvements I can make to the API to closely resemble an API I might use myself. I’m continuing to make those improvements and hope to deploy the API to the cloud at some point.

Tools I used

• Building the API: Django REST Framework
• Documenting the API: Astro