How do I create a login API using Django Rest Framework?

I want to create a login api (or use an existing one if it is already pre-bundled) using django rest framework. However, I'm completely at a loss. Whenever I send a post request to the django rest framework "login" url, it just sends back the browsable api template page...

MY CONFIGURATION

urls.py

url(r'^api/v1/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework'))

settings.py

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework.authentication.BasicAuthentication',
        'rest_framework.authentication.SessionAuthentication',
    )
}

WHAT I WANT

Request:

POST /api/v1/login  username='name' pass='pass'

Response:

200 OK "{username: 'name', 'userId': '54321'}" set-cookie: sessionid="blahblah"

Take a look at the api view from django-rest-framework-jwt. It's an implementation for creating auth tokens rather than cookie sessions, but your implementation will be similar. See views.py and serializers.py. You can probably use the serializers.py unchanged, and just adjust your views to return the right parameters and possibly set the session cookie (can't recall if that's already performed in authentication).

If you want something like this I do the same thing however I use Token authentication.

Check out their token page here

This may not be what you want but the way I do it is (since I'm using it as a rest api endpoints for mobile clients)

I can do my url localhost:8000/api/users/ -H Authorization : Token A browser could then use the regular login page that you create at the provided rest framework url

url(r'^api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework')

and to get tokens for 'login-less' navigation

url(r'^api-token-auth/', 'rest_framework.authtoken.views.obtain_auth_token')

Then if you make calls and such you can pass the authorization tokens. Of course this is just how I do it and it's probably not the most efficient way but my goal was to create a way that I can provide users with session authentication for browsers and mobile access via tokens.

Then in your views.py make sure you add the authentication requirements for that view. Almost the same as session authentication section

permission_classes = (permissions.IsAdminUser,)

but also include

authentication_classes = (authentication.TokenAuthentication,)

I hope this helps but if not, good luck on your search.

How do I create a login API using Django Rest Framework?

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