How to return custom JSON in Django REST Framework
If you don't need a ModelViewSet and just want custom JSON on a GET request
You can also use an APIView
, which doesn't require a model
class MyOwnView(APIView): def get(self, request): return Response({'some': 'data'})
and
urlpatterns = [ url(r'^my-own-view/$', MyOwnView.as_view()),]
With a ModelViewSet
You've put the custom JSON into get_queryset, that's wrong. If you want to use a ModelViewSet
, this by itself should be enough:
class TestViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): queryset = Test.objects.all() serializer_class = TestSerializer
This ModelViewSet
comes with default implementations for .list()
, .retrieve()
, .create()
, .update()
, and .destroy()
. Which are available for you to override (customize) as needed
Returning custom JSON from .retrieve()
and/or .list()
in ModelViewSet
E.g. to override .retrieve()
to return custom view when retrieving a single object. We can have a look at the default implementation which looks like this:
def retrieve(self, request, *args, **kwargs): instance = self.get_object() serializer = self.get_serializer(instance) return Response(serializer.data)
So as an example to return custom JSON:
class TestViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): queryset = Test.objects.all() serializer_class = TestSerializer def retrieve(self, request, *args, **kwargs): return Response({'something': 'my custom JSON'}) def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs): return Response({'something': 'my custom JSON'})
There are 2 ways to custom the response in Class-based views with ModelViewSet
Solution 1: custom in views.py
class StoryViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): permission_classes = (permissions.AllowAny,) queryset = Story.objects.all() serializer_class = StorySerializer def retrieve(self, request, *args, **kwargs): # ret = super(StoryViewSet, self).retrieve(request) return Response({'key': 'single value'}) def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs): # ret = super(StoryViewSet, self).list(request) return Response({'key': 'list value'})
Solution 2: custom in serializers.py (I recommend this solution)
class StorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer): class Meta: model = Story fields = "__all__" def to_representation(self, instance): ret = super(StorySerializer, self).to_representation(instance) # check the request is list view or detail view is_list_view = isinstance(self.instance, list) extra_ret = {'key': 'list value'} if is_list_view else {'key': 'single value'} ret.update(extra_ret) return ret