FastAPI Framework

A FastAPI Framework is a Python web framework that can support RESTful API development tasks with automatic validation systems and asynchronous request handling.

• AKA: FastAPI, Fast API, FastAPI Web Framework.
• Context:
  • It can typically leverage Python type hints for automatic data validation and automatic API documentation generation.
  • It can typically achieve high performance levels comparable to NodeJS frameworks and Go frameworks through ASGI-based architecture.
  • It can often generate interactive API documentation automatically through OpenAPI specifications and JSON Schema standards.
  • It can integrate with Pydantic library for data validation tasks, data serialization tasks, and data deserialization tasks.
  • It can utilize Starlette framework as its underlying ASGI framework for HTTP request handling and WebSocket support.
  • It can support asynchronous programming patterns through Python async/await syntax and concurrent request processing.
  • It can provide built-in dependency injection systems for code reusability and modular architecture design.
  • It can enable security authentication mechanisms including OAuth2 authentication, JWT tokens, and HTTP Basic authentication.
  • It can handle WebSocket connections alongside standard HTTP requests for real-time communication.
  • It can reduce development time through automatic code completion, type checking, and minimal boilerplate code.
  • It can minimize human-induced bugs through strict type validation, automatic request validation, and response serialization.
  • It can support GraphQL integration through third-party librarys like Strawberry GraphQL.
  • It can facilitate microservice architecture development with high-performance endpoints and API-first design.
  • It can provide automatic error handling with clear error messages when data validation failures occur.
  • It can integrate with SQL databases and NoSQL databases through ORM integrations and ODM integrations.
  • It can support middleware components for cross-cutting concerns like CORS handling, GZip compression, and request logging.
  • It can enable background task processing through in-process task queues and async task execution.
  • It can provide test client utility based on HTTPX library for API testing tasks.
  • It can range from being a simple API framework to being a complex enterprise framework, depending on its implementation scale.
  • It can run on ASGI servers such as Uvicorn server, Daphne server, Hypercorn server, or Gunicorn server with Uvicorn workers.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Production FastAPI deployments, such as:
    • Netflix FastAPI implementation for streaming service APIs.
    • Microsoft FastAPI service for cloud platform integration.
    • Uber FastAPI system for ride-sharing platform APIs.
    • Explosion AI FastAPI deployment by spaCy creators.
  • FastAPI application types, such as:
    • Machine learning model serving API with automatic request validation and model inference endpoints.
    • Real-time chat application using WebSocket support and async message handling.
    • RESTful microservice with CRUD operations and database integration.
    • Data science API for statistical analysis and data processing pipelines.
    • IoT device management API with async device communication and event streaming.
  • FastAPI feature implementations, such as:
    • Automatic Swagger UI generation at /docs endpoint.
    • ReDoc documentation interface at /redoc endpoint.
    • Pydantic model integration for request body validation.
    • Path parameter handling with type conversion.
    • Query parameter validation with default values and required fields.
  • FastAPI versions, such as:
    • FastAPI 0.1.0 (2018) as initial release.
    • FastAPI 0.68.0 (2021) with enhanced features.
    • FastAPI 0.100+ (2023) with Pydantic v2 support.
  • FastAPI-based tools, such as:
    • Typer CLI framework as FastAPI sibling project for command-line interfaces.
    • SQLModel ORM for database integration with type safety.
    • FastAPI CLI for application management from command line.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Flask framework, which lacks built-in async support, automatic API documentation, and type-based validation.
  • Django framework, which provides full-stack features and built-in admin interface beyond API-focused development.
  • Tornado framework, which uses callback-based async patterns rather than async/await syntax.
  • Express.js framework, which uses JavaScript language rather than Python language.
  • Spring Boot framework, which uses Java language and different architectural patterns.
• See: OpenAPI Specification, Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface (ASGI), Representational State Transfer, API, Data Validation, Serialization, Starlette Framework, Pydantic Library, Python Type Hint, Uvicorn Server, Sebastian Ramirez, Python Web Framework, API Documentation, Dependency Injection, WebSocket Protocol.

---

---

References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastAPI Retrieved:2024-4-23.
  • FastAPI is a modern web framework first released in 2018 for building RESTful APIs in Python. It is used for building APIs with Python 3.8+ based on standard Python-type hints. FastAPI is based on Pydantic and uses type hints to validate, serialize and deserialize data. It also automatically generates OpenAPI documentation for APIs built with it.

---