Partially updating a model with BooleanFields with djangorestframework - django

Question

I have a model like this
class Status(models.Model):
is_working = models.BooleanField(
default=None,
null=True
)
is_at_home = models.BooleanField(
default=None,
null=True
)
with the corresponding serializer
class StatusSerializer(ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Status
fields = [
"is_working",
"is_at_home"
]
using the default ModelViewSet
class StatusViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
"""
"""
serializer_class = StatusSerializer
queryset = Status.objects.all()
Whenever I partially update a Status, by e.g calling the put method on the API, all other fields are reset to False instead of keeping their old value.
Say, I have a Status that looks like this:
{
"id": 1,
"is_working": null,
"is_at_home": null,
}
If I call put using the following JSON:
{
"is_working": true
}
my data now looks like this
{
"id": 1,
"is_working": true,
"is_at_home": false <-- GOT UPDATED
}
I however, just want to update the is_working field, so that my desired result would be:
{
"id": 1,
"is_working": true,
"is_at_home": null
}
This probably has to do with the fact that HTML forms don't supply a value for unchecked fields. I, however, don't use any HTML forms as I'm purely consuming the API through JSON requests.
Using the serializer as is, I'd need to perform an extra get request prior to updating the model, just to get the state of the fields I don't want to update.
Is there a way around that?

Answer 1

First off, for partially updating you need to have a PATCH request and not PUT.
Since you are using ModelViewSet drf should automatically recognize that and set partial=True and update only the fields which were sent in the api payload.
ModelViewSet doc- DRF

Answer 2

You can make your is_at_home field read only in serializer as PUT method is updating it. Try this in your serializer.Hope this will work for you.
class StatusSerializer(ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Status
fields = [
"is_working",
"is_at_home"
]
extra_kwargs = {
'id': {'read_only': True},
'is_at_home': {'read_only': True},
}