Django Serlizing multiple foreginkey related models - django

Question

I am having trouble in showing cross relation data in my api end-point
this is my serlization class:
class ArticleSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
# these two variables are assigned coz, author and category are foregin key
author = serializers.StringRelatedField()
category = serializers.StringRelatedField()
class Meta:
model = Article
fields = '__all__'
Above serialization working fine but not satisfy needs.
And this is my models
from django.db import models
import uuid
class Organization(models.Model):
organization_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
contact = models.CharField(max_length=12, unique=True)
def __str__(self):
return self.organization_name
class Author(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=40)
detail = models.TextField()
organization = models.ForeignKey(Organization, on_delete=models.DO_NOTHING)
def __str__(self):
return self.name
class Category(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
def __str__(self):
return self.name
class Article(models.Model):
alias = models.UUIDField(primary_key=True, default=uuid.uuid4, editable=False)
author = models.ForeignKey(Author, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='author')
title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
body = models.TextField()
category = models.ForeignKey(Category, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
this is my views:
class ArticleSingle(RetrieveAPIView):
queryset = Article.objects.all()
serializer_class = ArticleSerializer
lookup_field = 'alias'
and currently my end-point showing like these but i dont like it:
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"alias": "029a4b50-2e9a-4d35-afc6-f354d2169c05",
"author": "jhon doe",
"category": "sic-fi",
"title": "title goes here",
"body": "this is body"
}
I want the end-point should show the data with author details like, author, organization_name, contact, etc if you dont understand it, please see my models how i designe it.
The end-point should show each and every related data that with foreign key, i hope you got my issue, thanks for your time

Answer 1

What you are looking for is nested serialization.
Rather than specifying author and category as StringRelatedFields, you should assign them as serializer classes (the same applies to the Organization model):
class OrganizationSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
...
class Meta:
model = Organization
fields = '__all__'
class AuthorSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
organization = OrganizationSerializer()
...
class Meta:
model = Author
fields = '__all__'
class CategorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
...
class Meta:
model = Category
fields = '__all__'
class ArticleSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
author = AuthorSerializer()
category = CategorySerializer()
class Meta:
model = Article
fields = '__all__'
This mechanism will serialize your data as you desire:
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"alias": "029a4b50-2e9a-4d35-afc6-f354d2169c05",
"author": {
"name": "jhon doe",
"organization": {
"organization_name": "..."
}
...
}
"category": {
"name": "sic-fi"
}
"title": "title goes here",
"body": "this is body"
}
Note: If you want to perform POST requests for creation of those resources, you can find some useful information here.