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