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Implement SWH Web applications using Django

Currently, the web RESTful API of Software Heritage is implemented using the Flask framework (http://flask.pocoo.org/). A Web UI for easily navigating in the archive will be created soon and the Django framework (https://www.djangoproject.com/) will be used to implement it.

Using the Django framework is an obvious choice as it offers numerous builtins features and enables to quickly design and implement Web apps in Python. Moreover, it is really well documented and there is a large community around it that contributes to extend its functionnalities.

In order to ease the development and the maintenance of the SWH Web applications, we should use the same Web framework for the RESTful API and the Web UI. Thus, the RESTful API implementation should be rewritten using the Django REST framework (http://www.django-rest-framework.org/).

Regarding the developments to perform, I currently see three high level tasks:

  • Implement a prototype for the Web API with the Django REST framework offering the same features as the currently available one (https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/):
    • test ORM layer of django: feasible but too tighted to the underlying db backend technology and swh-storage abstraction layer should be used
    • prefer to use the same design as with the Flask implementation: use function based views wrapping calls to swh-storage
  • Migrate the SWH Web API implementation from Flask to Django REST framework: first landing to master in c92395c3
  • Implement the Web UI for navigating into the archive with Django

Migrated from T739 (view on Phabricator)

Edited by Phabricator Migration user