Tutorial 3: Class-Based Views

Use struct-based generic views instead of writing function-based views.

Using Generic Views

Reinhardt provides generic views for common REST patterns.

ListAPIView

View for displaying a list of objects:

use reinhardt::prelude::*;
use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};

#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Snippet {
    id: i64,
    code: String,
    language: String,
}

#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct SnippetSerializer {
    id: i64,
    code: String,
    language: String,
}

let snippets = vec![
    Snippet { id: 1, code: "print('hello')".to_string(), language: "python".to_string() },
];

let view = ListAPIView::<Snippet, SnippetSerializer>::new()
    .with_objects(snippets)
    .with_paginate_by(10);

Available Generic Views

Reinhardt provides the following generic views:

Single Operation Views

• ListAPIView - Display list of objects (GET)
• CreateAPIView - Create object (POST)
• RetrieveAPIView - Retrieve single object (GET)
• UpdateAPIView - Update object (PUT/PATCH)
• DestroyAPIView - Delete object (DELETE)

Combined Operation Views

• ListCreateAPIView - List and create (GET, POST)
• RetrieveUpdateAPIView - Retrieve and update (GET, PUT, PATCH)
• RetrieveDestroyAPIView - Retrieve and delete (GET, DELETE)
• RetrieveUpdateDestroyAPIView - Retrieve, update, delete (GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE)

Moving to ViewSets

ViewSets provide a powerful way to build RESTful APIs with significantly less code. They combine multiple CRUD actions into a single struct:

use reinhardt::prelude::*;

// ModelViewSet automatically provides all CRUD operations
let viewset = ModelViewSet::<Snippet, SnippetSerializer>::new("snippet");

// ReadOnlyModelViewSet for read-only endpoints
let readonly_viewset = ReadOnlyModelViewSet::<Snippet, SnippetSerializer>::new("snippet");

ViewSets vs Generic Views:

Available ViewSets:

• ✅ ModelViewSet - Full CRUD operations (list, create, retrieve, update, delete)
• ✅ ReadOnlyModelViewSet - Read-only operations (list, retrieve)
• ✅ GenericViewSet - Base class for custom ViewSets

For detailed examples and advanced usage, see Tutorial 6: ViewSets and Routers.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned:

1. How to use generic views
2. Differences between single and combined operation views
3. Moving to ViewSets

Next tutorial: Tutorial 4: Authentication and Permissions