Welcome to Flask Slither

Slither is an API ‘framework’ for Flask which interfaces with MongoDB. It allows for rapid API development as well as customisations needed for bigger projects.

Requirements

The following are base requirements for Slither to function out the box:

Required

  • Python 2.5+
  • MongoDB
  • Flask 0.9
  • pymongo 2.5

Optional

  • mongokit (For form validations)
  • Flask-Testing (to run the tests)
  • nose (to execute the tests)
  • pytz, python-dateutil, blinker (for signed request authentication)

Why Slither?

Building a RESTful application is nothing new. When using mongo as a backend, the payload is in JSON, and if the API produces (mostly) JSON, then only a thin layer of logic is needed between the two. Here are some features:

  • Uses Flask’s MethodView as a basis for API endpoints
  • Its fast because it uses pymongo directly with little overhead
  • Quick and easy setup
  • Optional validation avaliable using MongoKit’s validation engine

Slither is based on Django’s Tastypie, and uses constructs that will be familiar tho developers who’ve used tastypie before.

Testing Slither

The easiest way to run the unit tests, is to install nose and Flask-Testing. Simply navigate to the root of the flask_slither code and run nosetests and the tests will run. Make sure you have a mongo instance up and running otherwise the tests will fail.