Normally you use:

* `POST`: to create data.
* `GET`: to read data.
* `PUT`: to update data.
* `DELETE`: to delete data.

So, in OpenAPI, each of the HTTP methods is called an "operation".

We are going to call them "**operations**" too.

#### Define a *path operation decorator*

```Python hl_lines="6"
{!../../../docs_src/first_steps/tutorial001.py!}
```

## Create the database

Because now we are going to use a new database in a new file, we need to make sure we create the database with:

```Python
Base.metadata.create_all(bind=engine)
```

That is normally called in `main.py`, but the line in `main.py` uses the database file `sql_app.db`, and we need to make sure we create `test.db` for the tests.

So we add that line here, with the new file.

```Python hl_lines="16"

# Python Types Intro

Python has support for optional "type hints" (also called "type annotations").

These **"type hints"** or annotations are a special syntax that allow declaring the <abbr title="for example: str, int, float, bool">type</abbr> of a variable.

By declaring types for your variables, editors and tools can give you better support.

    * There is a **solution** to this, however.
* There's an **extension** to the **TLS** protocol (the one handling the encryption at the TCP level, before HTTP) called **<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication" class="external-link" target="_blank"><abbr title="Server Name Indication">SNI</abbr></a>**.

The main feature I wanted from Django REST Framework was the automatic API documentation.

Then I found that there was a standard to document APIs, using JSON (or YAML, an extension of JSON) called Swagger.

And there was a web user interface for Swagger APIs already created. So, being able to generate Swagger documentation for an API would allow using this web user interface automatically.

## ASGI Servers

Let's go a little deeper into the details.

FastAPI uses a standard for building Python web frameworks and servers called <abbr title="Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface">ASGI</abbr>. FastAPI is an ASGI web framework.

### Technical Details: `root_path`

When you mount a sub-application as described above, FastAPI will take care of communicating the mount path for the sub-application using a mechanism from the ASGI specification called a `root_path`.

That way, the sub-application will know to use that path prefix for the docs UI.

One particular advantage that is not necessarily obvious is that you can **generate clients** (sometimes called <abbr title="Software Development Kits">**SDKs**</abbr> ) for your API, for many different **programming languages**.

## OpenAPI Client Generators

There are many tools to generate clients from **OpenAPI**.

### Other utility functions

Any other utility function that you call directly can be created with normal `def` or `async def` and FastAPI won't affect the way you call it.

This is in contrast to the functions that FastAPI calls for you: *path operation functions* and dependencies.

## Other Asynchronous Function Calls

As the testing function is now asynchronous, you can now also call (and `await`) other `async` functions apart from sending requests to your FastAPI application in your tests, exactly as you would call them anywhere else in your code.

!!! tip