Nesting fields in serialization with Django REST framework

Question

Given that I have a model like this:

class Case(models.Model):
    opened = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    client_first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    client_last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)

I would like to group the client_* fields, so that the serialized JSON would look like this:

{
    "opened": "2014-10-05T19:30:48.667Z",
    "client": {
        "first_name": "John",
        "last_name": "Doe"
    }
}

The following I tried, but doesn't work because client is not an actual field:

class ClientSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):

    class Meta:
        model = Case
        fields = ('client_first_name', 'client_last_name')


class CaseSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    client = ClientSerializer()

    class Meta:
        model = Case
        fields = ('opened', 'client')

What options do I have except for completely manual serialization? I prefer not to make a separate model for Client because this data really belongs in Case. Read-only is not good enough.

There is an answer. stackoverflow.com/questions/28187476/…. — brawaga
– brawaga, Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 7:44
@brawaga It's not really an answer since it's "completely manual serialization" and I wrote I'm looking for other options than that. Thanks anyway; good to have the author's opinion on it. — Thijs van Dien
– Thijs van Dien, Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:00
@Dien, based on not an answer, but top post update in the bottom, you can build a solution not to violate DRY, and that will be not completely, but half-manual serialization, just because the solution is to manipulate validated_data and instance and probably some more. And it will work two-way. — brawaga
– brawaga, Commented Sep 21, 2016 at 7:50
@brawage Ah, you're right – I took 'answer' too literally. There might be something in there. Although I agree with Tom that his version is more readable. — Thijs van Dien
– Thijs van Dien, Commented Sep 21, 2016 at 12:09

cezar · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-06 14:34:03Z

3

You can try like this:

class CaseSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    client = serializers.SerializerMethodField('client')

    class Meta:
        model = Case
        fields = ('opened', 'client')

    def client(self, obj):
        client_fields = {}
        client_fields['first_name'] = obj.client_first_name
        client_fields['last_name'] = obj.client_last_name
        return client_fields

answered Oct 6, 2014 at 14:34

cezar

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2 Comments

Thijs van Dien Over a year ago

It didn't work exactly, but I got the idea. Unfortunately it's inherently read-only, and I need full CRUD support.

cezar Over a year ago

Dooh! I forgot it. Yes, the SerializerMethodField is read-only. I have made a heavy use of it, but for read-only web services, so I didn't think immediately that you would also need post and put methods.

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