Django REST Framework + Django REST Swagger + ImageField

I got this working by making a couple of changes to your code.

First, in models.py, change ImageField name to file and use relative path to upload folder. When you upload file as binary stream, it's available in request.data dictionary under file key (request.data.get('file')), so the cleanest option is to map it to the model field with the same name.

from django.utils import timezonefrom django.db import modelsclass MyModel(models.Model):    file = models.ImageField(upload_to=u'photos')    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=False)    created_at = models.DateTimeField(default=timezone.now)    def __unicode__(self):        return u"photo {0}".format(self.file.url)

In serializer.py, rename source field to file:

class MyModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):    class Meta:        model = MyModel        fields = ('id', 'file', 'created_at')

In views.py, don't call super, but call create():

from rest_framework import genericsfrom rest_framework.parsers import FileUploadParserfrom .serializer import MyModelSerializerclass MyModelView(generics.CreateAPIView):    serializer_class = MyModelSerializer    parser_classes = (FileUploadParser,)    def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):        """            Create a MyModel            ---            parameters:                - name: file                  description: file                  required: True                  type: file            responseMessages:                - code: 201                  message: Created        """        return self.create(request, *args, **kwargs)

I've used Postman Chrome extension to test this. I've uploaded images as binaries and I've manually set two headers:

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=upload.jpgContent-Type: */*

This is the final solution I came up with:

from rest_framework import genericsfrom rest_framework.parsers import FormParser, MultiPartParserfrom .serializer import MyModelSerializerclass MyModelView(generics.CreateAPIView):    serializer_class = MyModelSerializer    parser_classes = (FormParser, MultiPartParser)    def post(self, *args, **kwargs):        """            Create a MyModel            ---            parameters:                - name: source                  description: file                  required: True                  type: file            responseMessages:                - code: 201                  message: Created        """        return super(MyModelView, self).post(self, *args, **kwargs)

All I had to do was change the parsers from FileUploadParser to (FormParser, MultiPartParser)

It has been my experience that the FileUploadParser works with this format of a request:

    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type:multipart/form-data" \                 -F "file=@{filename};type=image/jpg" \                 https://endpoint.com/upload-uri/

The request.data['file'] in your view will have the file.

Maybe if you try a Content-Type:multipart/form-data header, you will have luck.