diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 1207cc48..6b952e8f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -47,3 +47,6 @@ pip-delete-this-directory.txt
 *.sw*
 manage.py
 .DS_Store
+
+# example database
+drf_example
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index fc160067..c591958f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 * Add sorting configuration to `REST_FRAMEWORK` as defined in [json api spec](http://jsonapi.org/format/#fetching-sorting)
 * Add `HyperlinkedRelatedField` and `SerializerMethodHyperlinkedRelatedField`. See [usage docs](docs/usage.md#related-fields)
 * Add related urls support. See [usage docs](docs/usage.md#related-urls)
+* Replaced binary `drf_example` sqlite3 db with a [fixture](example/fixtures/drf_example.yaml). See [usage docs](docs/usage.md#running-the-example-app).
 
 
 v2.5.0 - Released July 11, 2018
diff --git a/docs/getting-started.md b/docs/getting-started.md
index 49bd64b7..26117e0b 100644
--- a/docs/getting-started.md
+++ b/docs/getting-started.md
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ From Source
 	pip install -r example/requirements.txt
 	pip install -e .
 	django-admin migrate --settings=example.settings
+	django-admin loaddata drf_example --settings=example.settings
 	django-admin runserver --settings=example.settings
 
 
diff --git a/drf_example b/drf_example
deleted file mode 100644
index 2b54190f..00000000
Binary files a/drf_example and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/example/fixtures/drf_example.json b/example/fixtures/drf_example.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..498c0d1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example/fixtures/drf_example.json
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+[
+{
+  "model": "example.blog",
+  "pk": 1,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T08:27:16.889",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T08:27:16.889",
+    "name": "Personal",
+    "tagline": ""
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.blog",
+  "pk": 2,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T08:27:23.871",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T08:27:23.871",
+    "name": "Work",
+    "tagline": ""
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.author",
+  "pk": 1,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:09:48.277",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:09:48.277",
+    "name": "Alice",
+    "email": "alice@example.com",
+    "type": null
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.author",
+  "pk": 2,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:09:57.133",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:09:57.133",
+    "name": "Bob",
+    "email": "bob@example.com",
+    "type": null
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.authorbio",
+  "pk": 1,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:10:23.429",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:10:23.429",
+    "author": 1,
+    "body": "I just want to send messages to Bob."
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.authorbio",
+  "pk": 2,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:11:30.327",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:11:30.327",
+    "author": 2,
+    "body": "I get messages from Alice and send them to Carol"
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.entry",
+  "pk": 1,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:43:21.271",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:43:21.271",
+    "blog": 1,
+    "headline": "This is a test, this is only a test",
+    "body_text": "And this is the body text for the blog entry. To see comments included in this payload visit: /entries/1?include=comments",
+    "pub_date": "2015-01-01",
+    "mod_date": "2015-04-05",
+    "n_comments": 0,
+    "n_pingbacks": 0,
+    "rating": 0,
+    "authors": [
+      1
+    ]
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.entry",
+  "pk": 2,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:44:14.376",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:49:30.150",
+    "blog": 1,
+    "headline": "Django, the framework for perfectionists with deadlines",
+    "body_text": "And this is the body text. Try out includes by using this uri: /entries/2?include=comments,authors,authors.bio",
+    "pub_date": "2015-05-01",
+    "mod_date": "2015-09-03",
+    "n_comments": 0,
+    "n_pingbacks": 0,
+    "rating": 0,
+    "authors": [
+      2
+    ]
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.comment",
+  "pk": 1,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:44:35.093",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:44:35.093",
+    "entry": 1,
+    "body": "Love this article!",
+    "author": 2
+  }
+},
+{
+  "model": "example.comment",
+  "pk": 2,
+  "fields": {
+    "created_at": "2016-05-02T10:44:55.482",
+    "modified_at": "2016-05-02T10:44:55.482",
+    "entry": 2,
+    "body": "Frist comment!!!",
+    "author": null
+  }
+}
+]
diff --git a/example/requirements.txt b/example/requirements.txt
index 0fa77009..fe28eddc 100644
--- a/example/requirements.txt
+++ b/example/requirements.txt
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ pyparsing
 pytz
 six
 sqlparse
+