Class vs Function based views in Django

What is Django?

Django is a python-based backend web framework built around developing quickly. Django is used in production by Instagram, Pinterest, Nasa, YouTube, Dropbox, and more. Django has a robust supportive community and is a batteries included framework.

Why we love Django

Django utilizes an ORM to interact with a database which makes it easy for developers to use a database without learning SQL. Django is in python, a loved language that is easy to use and develop with. Django has built in authentication and authorization with their middleware and will automatically store sessions. Django is a scalable framework that allows for easy development with rest API CRUD operations. It has a built in admin panel for management and easy development.

I also wrote a blog on this topic

https://nschaefer23.wixsite.com/blog/post/the-benefits-of-using-django

What are Views?

Views in Django are how Django will handle a request from a URL whether that be get or post. It will return renders of templates and JSON data.

Function Based

A typical function based view will look similar to this

@api_view(["post", "get"]) # Function Decorator
def function_based_view(request):
    """
    the function body
    """
    return HttpResponse({}) #  typically filled with data

The request is passed in as a function parameter in which you then can import models or find. In function based views you will typically have to do more of the heavy lifting in the code along with more customization.

Class Based

class based views often look like this

class class_based_view(APIView): # will vary the inherited class
    def get(request):
        return HttpResponse({})
    def post(request):
        return HttpResponse({})

Class based views will often change their inheritance class based on how they work. It allows for more functionality but will be more difficult to learn and master. Class based views get easier and faster functionality.

Conclusion

you can do anything with class based views as you can with function based views. Function based views require more code and often longer development. Class based views often will be able to accomplish the same tasks easier and with less code along with providing a faster view.