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Integrations can be tricky! [Contact support](🔗) if you have any questions/issues.

## Overview

If you're a developer, it takes a few small steps to send your API logs to [ReadMe](🔗) so your team can get deep insights into your API's usage with [ReadMe Metrics](🔗). Here's an overview of how the integration works:

  • You install the `ReadMeMetrics` [Django](🔗) Middleware and configure your Django app to use it.

  • You write a grouping function, which is used to tie each API request to the user or API key that initiated the request.

  • The middleware will send to ReadMe the request and response objects that your server generates each time a user makes a request to your API. The entire objects are sent, unless you deny or allow specific keys from the request.

  • ReadMe extracts information to display in Metrics, such as which endpoint is being called, response code, and error messages. It also identifies the customer who called your API, using the data returned by your grouping function.

## Steps

  1. From the directory of your codebase, run the following command in your command line to install the Django variant of the `readme-metrics` package from [pypi](🔗). You can also add this to your `requirements.txt` file.


  1. In your codebase, write a grouping function to inform ReadMe of the user or API key holder that is responsible for a given request. The grouping function receives the current Django `WSGIRequest` object as input, and should return a data structure describing the current user or API key holder. A basic grouping function would look like this:

User Identification
We use the `email` you send us via grouping for user identification and company association. While email is not require, to get the best value out Metrics, we highly recommend that you include it.
  1. Add a `README_METRICS_CONFIG` setting to your Django `settings.py` file, using the `MetricsApiConfig` helper object:

The `MetricsApiConfig` object takes the following parameters:
  • Your ReadMe API Key. If you're [logged in](🔗) to these docs, this string is automatically populated in the preceeding code.
  • A function that takes the `Request` object and returns a `dict` describing the user, or `None` if the request should not be logged
  • Additional options: see details [below](🔗)
  1. Add our `MetricsMiddleware` to your list of middleware, also in your app's `settings.py` file:

## Identifying the API Caller
There are three fields that you can use to identify the user making the API call. We recommend passing all three to make API Metrics as useful as possible.
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FieldTypeDescription
`api_key`string**Required** API key used to make the request, or another unique identifier of the user who made the request.
`label`stringDisplay name for the user or account holder in the API Metrics Dashboard, since it's much more useful to have names than just unique identifiers or API keys.
`email`stringEmail address of the user or account holder that is making the call.
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## Configuration Options
There are a few options you can pass in to change how the logs are sent to ReadMe. These are passed in as parameters to the `MetricsApiConfig` constructor.

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OptionTypeDescription
`buffer_length`intBy default, we only send logs to ReadMe after 10 requests are made. Depending on the usage of your API it make make sense to send logs more or less frequently.
`development_mode`boolDefaults to `False`. If `True`, the log will be separate from normal production logs. This is great for separating staging or test data from data coming from customers.
`background_worker_mode`boolDefaults to `True`. Determines whether to issue the call to the ReadMe API in a background thread (`True`), or in the main thread (`False`). If the ReadMe API call is issued in the main thread, your application server will block until the API call finishes.
`denylist`dictDefaults to `None`. An array of keys from your API requests and responses headers and bodies that you wish to block from being sent to ReadMe.<br /><br />Both the request and response will be checked for these keys, in their HTTP headers, form fields, URL parameters, and JSON request/response bodies. JSON is only checked at the top level, so a nested field will still be sent even if its key matches one of the keys in denylist.<br /><br />If you configure a denylist, it will override any `allowlist` configuration.
`allowlist`dictDefaults to `None`. An array of headers and JSON body properties to send to ReadMe. If you configure an allowlist then all other properties will be dropped. Otherwise the semantics are similar to `denylist`.
`allowed_http_hosts`dictDefaults to `None`. A list of HTTP hosts which should be logged to ReadMe. If this is present, requests will only be sent to ReadMe whose Host header matches one of the allowed hosts.
`timeout`intDefaults to `3`. Timeout (in seconds) for calls back to the ReadMe Metrics API.
`base_log_url`strDefaults to `None`. Used to construct an `x-documentation-url`, linking your newly created log to your documentation site. Great for sharing!
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