Question: I have code duplication in my API design for the object methods vs. the URL routing functions: # door_model.py class Door: def open(self): # "Door.open" written once... ...  # http_api.py (the HTTP server is separated from the real-world object models) @app.route('/api/door/open') # ... written twice def dooropen(): # ... written three times d.open() # ... written four times! d = Door()  How to avoid this unnecessary duplication of names in a similar API design? (while keeping a separation between real-world object models vs. HTTP server). Is there a general pattern to avoid unnecessary duplication of names when using an object model (with methods), and URL routes functions? (nearly a Model View Controller pattern) See also Associate methods of an object to API URL routes with Python Flask.

Answer: If we declare a route for every model action and do the same things for each (in your case, call the corresponding method with or without parameter), it will duplicate the code. Commonly, people use design patterns (primarily for big projects) and algorithms to avoid code duplications. And I want to show a simple example that defines one generic route and handles all requests in one handler function. Suppose we have the following file structure. application/ ├─ models/ │ ├─ door.py │ ├─ window.py ├─ main.py  The prototype of the Door looks like # door.py class Door: def open(self): try: # open the door return 0 except: return 1 def close(self): try: # close the door return 0 except: return 1 def openlater(self, waitseconds=2): print("Waiting for ", waitseconds) try: # wait and open the door return 0 except: return 1  Where I conditionally set exit codes of the C, 0 for success and 1 for error or failure. We must separate and group the model actions into one as they have a common structure. +----------+----------+------------+----------------------+ | API base | model | action | arguments (optional) | +----------+----------+------------+----------------------+ | /api | /door | /open | | | /api | /door | /close | | | /api | /door | /openlater | ?waitseconds=10 | | /api | /window | /open | | | /api | /<model> | /<action> | | +----------+----------+------------+----------------------+  After we separate our groups by usage interface, we can implement a generic handler for each. Generic handler implementation # main.py from flask import Flask, Response, request import json from models.door import Door from models.window import Window app = Flask(__name__) door = Door() window = Window() MODELS = { "door": door, "window": window, } @app.route("/api/<model>/<action>") def handler(model, action): model_ = MODELS.get(model) action_ = getattr(model_, action, None) if callable(action_): try: error = action_(**request.args) if not error: return Response(json.dumps({ "message": "Operation succeeded" }), status=200, mimetype="application/json") return Response(json.dumps({ "message": "Operation failed" }), status=400, mimetype="application/json") except (TypeError, Exception): return Response(json.dumps({ "message": "Invalid parameters" }), status=400, mimetype="application/json") return Response(json.dumps({ "message": "Wrong action" }), status=404, mimetype="application/json") if __name__ == "__main__": app.run()  So you can control the actions of the models by using different API paths and query parameters.