Register multiple routes in Django DRF - using and calling methods in ModelViewSets or Generics

I want to understand how to use Django DRF to register:

• two different endpoints, and
• only one endpoint making use of custom fields

Please show the differences in using ViewSets and Generics.

These are my attempts.

I came from Flask, and found very clear to define multiple end-points with decorators.

Flask - example endpoints to get a list of objects,last object

option 1

@application.route('/people/', endpoint='people')
def people():
   # return a list of people
   pass

@application.route('/last/', endpoint='last_person')
def last_person():
   # return last person
   pass

option 2

@application.route('/people/', endpoint='people')
def people():
   field = request.args.get('last', None)
   if field:
      # return last person from list of people
   else:
     # return list of people

I understood the benefit of DRF may be consistency and read the documentation, but found cumbersome and wish to understand more clearly how to make use of ModelsViewSets and Generics to see the benefits VS flask.

Please help with an example to fetch a list of users, and last user.

Django DRF - first approach (ModelViewSet)

# serializer.py
from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import Person

class PersonSerializer( serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Person
        fields = ('name', 'nickname', 'timestamp')

# views.py
class PersonViewSet( viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Person.objects.all().order_by('name')
    serializer_class = PersonSerializer

I understood the class PersonViewSet should be ready to expose method to both fetch a list, as well as retrieve an item, because of ModelViewSet: https://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/viewsets/#modelviewset

But how to explicitly see that when registering the endpoints ?

Example:

# urls.py
router = routers.DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'people', views.PersonViewSet)

app_name = 'myapi'

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

When I browse http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/ , I can see only one endpoint. Yes, if I try http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/1/ it will retrieve a user by itself, but how can I read it in the code above? how can I map a method from PersonViewSet (something like PersonViewSet.get_last_person() ) to instruct using the same endpoint to get last entry ?

Django DRF - second approach (Generics)

I read Generics models exposes APIs models suited to retrieve one single item, rather than a list:

https://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/generic-views/#retrieveapiview

I tried to add, in views.py:

# I make use of RetrieveAPIView now
class LastPersonView( generics.RetrieveAPIView):
    queryset = Person.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PersonSerializer

and in urls.py:

router.register(r'people', views.PersonViewSet)
router.register(r'last-person', views.LastPersonView)

But that will yield error: AttributeError: type object 'LastPersonView' has no attribute 'get_extra_actions because Generics does not have get_extra_actions , like instead ViewSet

How to register both views in my router, in this second example ?

Django DRF - Third attempt (ModelViewSet with basename)

https://stackoverflow.com/a/40759051/305883

I could also instruct a ViewSet to register different endpoints in my urls.py , by assigning a basename:

router.register(r'people', views.PersonViewSet)
router.register(r'last-person', views.PersonViewSet,  basename='lastperson')

and use the same ModelViewSet:

class PersonViewSet( viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Person.objects.all().order_by('name')
    serializer_class = PersonSerializer

I understood the benefit of this approach is more "simple", because queryset is always the same.

But I can I register a method to retrieve the last object, and map that method in my router (include(router.urls)) ?

Could offer examples making use of ModelViewSets, Generics and a more explicit approach that declare methods in Views and call those methods in an endpoint ?

Could you illustrate which approach may be better:

• use a viewSet to handle lists, and expose a method to retrieve an item from the list
• use two separate views, one for a list, and one for an item
• map two distinct endpoints in my router from one single view or from two separate views
• map one endpoint with field options to my router , from one single view