Connecting Angular frontend with Django backend: How to handle API requests?

Backend
1

I’m new to combining Angular with Django and I’m struggling with API requests. I’ve set up a Django backend using rest_framework and an Angular 7 frontend. The issue is that my Angular app is trying to fetch data from its own server (localhost:4200) instead of the Django server (localhost:8000).

Here’s a simplified version of what I’m attempting:

export class DataComponent implements OnInit {
  info: any;
  isLoaded: boolean = false;
  hasIssue: boolean = false;

  constructor(private httpClient: HttpClient) { }

  ngOnInit() {
    this.httpClient.get('/api/data').subscribe(
      response => {
        this.info = response;
        console.log(response);
      },
      err => {
        this.isLoaded = true;
        this.hasIssue = true;
        console.log(err);
      }
    );
  }
}

I know I could create a service with a baseUrl variable, but is there a more elegant way to automatically direct all API requests to the backend server? Any guidance or best practices for this kind of setup would be really appreciated!

2

hey there! have you considered using a proxy configuration in angular? it’s super helpful for redirecting api requests during development. you could set up a proxy.conf.json file to forward requests to your django server. it’s pretty straightforward and keeps your code clean. what do you think about that approach?

3

yo LucasPixel23, i’ve been there! one trick is to use Angular’s environment files. u can set ur API_URL there and import it in ur components. like this:

import { environment } from '../environments/environment';

this.httpClient.get(`${environment.apiUrl}/api/data`)

works like a charm, trust me!