Due to unique business needs, I have to customize the Create API endpoint. Default behavior in django-rest-framework is like this.
class Customer(models.Model):
fieldA = models.IntegerField(null=True, blank=True)
fieldB = models.CharField(max_length=5, blank=True)
... ...
class CustomerSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Customer
fields = '__all__'
class CustomerListCreateAPIView(generics.ListCreateAPIView):
queryset = Customer.objects.all()
serializer_class = CustomerSerializer
post data
{
fieldA: 1,
fieldB: 'some string'
}
it sends respond with Created status
{
id: 1,
fieldA: 1,
fieldB: 'some string'
}
However, I want to post data with nested data and validate
{
"customer": {
"fieldA": 1,
"fieldB": "some string"
}
}
Expected response data should be
{
"customer": {
"id": 1,
"fieldA": 1,
"fieldB": "some string"
}
}
Also validation should show nested error messages
{
"customer": "customer field is required"
}
{
"customer": {
"fieldA": ["filedA is required"],
}
}
How can I archieve this?
You can create an ApiView and validate each single data by iterating. If all the data is valid then create the objects.
Example:
class CustomerSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Customer
fields = '__all__'
class CustomerListCreateAPIView(APIView):
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
customers = request.data.get('customer', None)
for customer in customers:
validated_data = CustomerSerializer(data=customer)
# if invalid Raise Validation error
objects = []
for customer in customers:
validated_data = CustomerSerializer(data=customer)
customer = Customer.objects.create(validated_data)
objects.append(customer.id)
return Response(
CustomerSerializer(Customer.objects.filter(id__in=objects), many=True).data)
Here is my revised approach. It creates new instance using serializer and sends nested validation error messages.
class CustomerSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Customer
fields = '__all__'
class CustomerView(generics.ListCreateAPIView):
queryset = Customer.objects.all()
def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
customer = request.data.get('customer', None)
if not customer:
raise serializers.ValidationError({'customer': 'customer field is required'})
serializer = CustomerSerializer(data=customer)
serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=False)
if serializer.errors:
error = {
'customer': serializer.errors
}
return Response(error, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)
data = serializer.save()
headers = self.get_success_headers(serializer.data)
return Response(data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED, headers=headers)
Validation errors:
{
"customer": "customer field is required"
}
{
"customer": {
"fieldA": ["filedA is required"],
}
}
Hope this will help others.