File Upload API

A simple Django REST API to upload, retrieve, list, and delete files.

Overview

The file_upload_api project includes a single app, file_manager, which implements the following features:

• Upload Files: Accept file uploads via a POST endpoint.

• List Files: Retrieve a list of all uploaded files with metadata.

• Retrieve Files: Download specific files by ID.

• Delete Files: Remove files and their metadata by ID.

• Files are stored in the MEDIA_ROOT directory, organized by date (uploads/YYYY/MM/DD/).

The API is built using Django REST Framework and is accessible without authentication (using AllowAny permissions) for simplicity, making it ideal for development and testing.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• Django
• Django REST Framework

Setup Instructions

## Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/kihuni/file_upload_api.git
cd file_upload_api

Create virtual environment

python -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

Update MEDIA_ROOT and MEDIA_URL in settings.py for file storage.

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

Apply migrations

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Run the server

python manage.py runserver

The API will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/upload/	Upload a file
GET	/api/files/	List uploaded files
GET	/api/files/<id>/	Download a specific file
DELETE	/api/files/<id>/delete/	Delete a file by ID

Example with cURL

Upload a File:

curl -X POST -F "file=@test.txt" http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/upload/

Response: JSON with id, file, file_url, uploaded_at, and file_size.

List Files:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/files/

Response: Array of file metadata.

Retrieve a File:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/files/1/ -o downloaded_test.txt

Downloads the file with ID 1.

Delete a File:

curl -X DELETE http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/files/1/delete/

Response: 204 with no content.

File Storage

• Files are saved in MEDIA_ROOT/uploads/YYYY/MM/DD/.

• The file_url in responses points to the downloadable file (e.g., /media/uploads/2025/06/29/test.txt).

Testing The project includes unit tests for all endpoints. To run the tests:

python manage.py test

• Test Coverage: Tests verify file upload, listing, retrieval, and deletion.

• Requirements: Ensure the test database is created during the first run.