Creating a simple backend with FastAPI

FastAPI is a modern web framework for building APIs with Python. It is easy to use and provides fast performance due to its use of Python type hints and automatic data validation. In this article, we will walk through the steps to create a simple backend with FastAPI.

Step 1: Install FastAPI

To get started, you can install FastAPI using pip:


pip install fastapi


You may also want to install the uvicorn ASGI server to run your FastAPI application:


pip install uvicorn


Step 2: Create a FastAPI application

Once FastAPI is installed, you can create a new Python file for your backend application. Here is an example of a simple FastAPI application:


from fastapi import FastAPI

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/")
def read_root():
return {"message": "Hello, World!"}


In the above code, we import the FastAPI module and create a new instance of the FastAPI class. We then define a single route for the root path (“/”) that returns a JSON response with a message “Hello, World!”.

Step 3: Run the FastAPI application

To run your FastAPI application, you can use the uvicorn server. Save your Python file and run the following command in your terminal:


uvicorn filename:app --reload


Replace “filename” with the name of your Python file. The “–reload” flag will automatically reload the server whenever you make changes to your code.

Step 4: Test your FastAPI application

Once your FastAPI application is running, you can test it by opening a web browser and navigating to http://localhost:8000/. You should see the message “Hello, World!” displayed on the page.

Conclusion

Creating a simple backend with FastAPI is easy and straightforward. With its modern approach to building APIs, FastAPI is a great choice for developers looking to create fast and efficient backend applications with Python.