feat: Add support for flexible throttling intervals

docs/api-guide/throttling.md

@@ -196,6 +196,41 @@ For example, given the following views...
 User requests to either `ContactListView` or `ContactDetailView` would be restricted to a total of 1000 requests per-day.  User requests to `UploadView` would be restricted to 20 requests per day.
 
 ---
+## Customizing Throttling Time
+
+You can now set custom and flexible time periods for the throttling classes. This enhancement allows you to specify a time unit for throttling, giving you more control over how the rate limits are applied.
+
+To set custom and flexible time periods for throttling, you can use the throttle_duration parameter. The throttle_duration parameter accepts a string that combines a numeric quantity and a time unit, similar to the style used in other Django settings. For example, you can set a throttling duration of "10s" for 10 seconds or "5m" for 5 minutes.
+
+## Examples
+
+1. Custom Time Period for User Throttling
+
+To limit the rate of requests for authenticated users to 5 requests every 15 minutes, you can use the throttle_duration parameter as follows:
+
+REST_FRAMEWORK = {
+    'DEFAULT_THROTTLE_RATES': {
+        'user': '5/15m',  # Allow 5 requests every 15 minutes for each user
+    }
+}
+
+2. Scoped Throttling with Custom Time
+
+You can also apply custom throttling rates to specific views using the ScopedRateThrottle class. For example, to limit requests to the "write" scope to 3 requests every 30 seconds:
+
+
+REST_FRAMEWORK = {
+    'DEFAULT_THROTTLE_CLASSES': [
+        'rest_framework.throttling.ScopedRateThrottle',
+    ],
+    'DEFAULT_THROTTLE_RATES': {
+        'user': '10/minute',          # Default rate for all users
+        'write': '3/30s',             # Allow 3 requests every 30 seconds for "write" scope
+        'custom_scope': '20/1h',      # Allow 20 requests every 1 hour for a custom scope
+    }
+}
+
+With these enhancements, you can have more granular control over how you limit the rate of incoming requests to your API views in Django REST framework.
 
 # Custom throttles
 

rest_framework/throttling.py

@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 from django.core.cache import cache as default_cache
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
-
 from rest_framework.settings import api_settings
 
 
@@ -94,6 +93,24 @@ def get_rate(self):
             msg = "No default throttle rate set for '%s' scope" % self.scope
             raise ImproperlyConfigured(msg)
 
+    def parse_quantity_and_unit(self, quantity_unit_string):
+        """
+        Parse a combined quantity and unit string and return a tuple with parsed values.
+
+        Returns:
+            tuple: A tuple containing the parsed values (quantity, unit).
+        """
+        i = 0
+        while i < len(quantity_unit_string) and quantity_unit_string[i].isnumeric():
+            i += 1
+
+        if i == 0:
+            return (1, quantity_unit_string)
+        else:
+            quantity = int(quantity_unit_string[:i])
+            unit = quantity_unit_string[i:]
+            return (quantity, unit)
+
     def parse_rate(self, rate):
         """
         Given the request rate string, return a two tuple of:
@@ -102,9 +119,11 @@ def parse_rate(self, rate):
         if rate is None:
             return (None, None)
         num, period = rate.split('/')
+        quantity, unit = self.parse_quantity_and_unit(period)
         num_requests = int(num)
-        duration = {'s': 1, 'm': 60, 'h': 3600, 'd': 86400}[period[0]]
-        return (num_requests, duration)
+        duration = {'s': 1, 'm': 60, 'h': 3600, 'd': 86400}[unit[0]]
+        total_duration = duration * int(quantity)
+        return (num_requests, total_duration)
 
     def allow_request(self, request, view):
         """

tests/test_throttling.py

@@ -466,6 +466,14 @@ def test_parse_rate_returns_tuple_with_none_if_rate_not_provided(self):
         rate = SimpleRateThrottle().parse_rate(None)
         assert rate == (None, None)
 
+    def test_parse_quantity_and_unit_parses_correctly(self):
+        result = SimpleRateThrottle().parse_quantity_and_unit("5min")
+        assert result == (5, 'min')
+        result = SimpleRateThrottle().parse_quantity_and_unit("h")
+        assert result == (1, 'h')
+        result = SimpleRateThrottle().parse_quantity_and_unit("123s")
+        assert result == (123, 's')
+
     def test_allow_request_returns_true_if_rate_is_none(self):
         assert SimpleRateThrottle().allow_request(request={}, view={}) is True