User CRUD REST API in Django REST Framework

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to build a full-featured REST API for managing users using Django REST Framework (DRF). The API supports create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations, including image upload. It is fully frontend-ready — perfect for Angular, React, or any SPA.

✅ Features Covered

• User Registration with profile image
• View all users or a single user
• Update user data including password and image
• Delete user
• Frontend integration via FormData

📁 Project Structure

usercrud/
├── manage.py
├── usercrud/
│   ├── settings.py
│   └── urls.py
├── users/
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── serializers.py
│   ├── views.py
│   ├── urls.py
  

1️⃣ Install and Set Up Django

pip install django djangorestframework pillow

django-admin startproject usercrud
cd usercrud
python manage.py startapp users
  

2️⃣ Configure settings.py

Add to INSTALLED_APPS:

'rest_framework',
'corsheaders',
'users',
  

Enable media file upload:

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'media'

CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS = True
  

3️⃣ Create CustomUser Model

from django.db import models
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager

class CustomUserManager(BaseUserManager):
    def create_user(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields):
        if not email:
            raise ValueError("Email is required")
        email = self.normalize_email(email)
        user = self.model(email=email, **extra_fields)
        if password:
            user.set_password(password)
        user.save()
        return user

class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser):
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True)
    image = models.ImageField(upload_to='profile_images/', blank=True, null=True)

    objects = CustomUserManager()

    USERNAME_FIELD = 'email'
    REQUIRED_FIELDS = ['first_name', 'last_name']
  

4️⃣ Make Migrations

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

5️⃣ Create Serializer

from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import CustomUser

class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    password = serializers.CharField(write_only=True, required=False)

    class Meta:
        model = CustomUser
        fields = ['id', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'email', 'password', 'image']

    def create(self, validated_data):
        password = validated_data.pop('password', None)
        user = CustomUser(**validated_data)
        if password:
            user.set_password(password)
        user.save()
        return user

    def update(self, instance, validated_data):
        password = validated_data.pop('password', None)
        for attr, value in validated_data.items():
            setattr(instance, attr, value)
        if password:
            instance.set_password(password)
        instance.save()
        return instance
  

6️⃣ Create ViewSet

from rest_framework import viewsets
from .models import CustomUser
from .serializers import UserSerializer

class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = CustomUser.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer
  

7️⃣ Wire Up URLs

users/urls.py

from django.urls import path, include
from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter
from .views import UserViewSet

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register('users', UserViewSet)

urlpatterns = [
    path('', include(router.urls)),
]
  

usercrud/urls.py

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('api/', include('users.urls')),
]

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
  

✅ API Endpoints

• GET /api/users/ – List all users
• POST /api/users/ – Create user
• GET /api/users/<id>/ – View user
• PUT/PATCH /api/users/<id>/ – Update user
• DELETE /api/users/<id>/ – Delete user