1230584 - Improve browsable API for creating and updating resources

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: BrowserCompat, defect)

Description

[John Whitlock [:jwhitlock]]

What problem would this feature solve?
======================================
Django REST Framework includes a Browsable API, which is useful for viewing resources in the browser. It also includes a simple form and raw view for creating and updating resources. This is currently misleading at best, and causes issues at worst.

Who has this problem?
=====================
Core contributors to MDN

How do you know that the users identified above have this problem?
==================================================================
bug 1229170 is related to this issue: An authenticated user requests a missing feature, and the Browsable API constructs drop-down menus for creating a new feature instance.  This results in 5000+ SQL queries, taking about 1 minute. In Heroku, any request that takes more than 30 seconds results in the application being rebooted.

How are the users identified above solving this problem now?
============================================================
Logging out or using a private browsing session when looking at the Browsable API.  Code requests the JSON representation, which avoids the form creation.

Do you have any suggestions for solving the problem? Please explain in detail.
==============================================================================
Customize the Browsable API:

* Use plain text input for IDs. Phase 2: augment with increment-lookup JavaScript
* Remove form fields that aren't appropriate for context (for example, history_current at resource creation)
* Populate the "Raw" format with the appropriate JSON-API response instead of internal format

Is there anything else we should know?
======================================
DRF 3.3 [1] has a new supported forms API [2] that means that this might be done in a DRF standard way.

[1] http://www.django-rest-framework.org/topics/3.3-announcement/
[2] http://www.django-rest-framework.org/topics/html-and-forms/

Comment 1

[John Whitlock [:jwhitlock]]

The "raw" mode for updating resources in the Browsable API is broken for at least v2 API resources, and could be fixed with other changes in this bug.

Comment 2

[John Whitlock [:jwhitlock]]

The BrowserCompat project is canceled.  See https://github.com/mdn/browsercompat for current effort. Bulk status change includes the random word TEMPOTHRONE.