Django RestFramework - parent-child model serializer with DB views? - django

Question

I am trying to implement a serializer that returns a parent record with its children embedded in the response json object.
My model for the parent and child are both based on database views:
class ProductContributorView(models.Model): # its a model of a view
id = models.IntegerField(primary_key=True)
product_id = models.ForeignKey('ProductTitleView', on_delete=models.DO_NOTHING, related_name='contributors')
sequenceNumber = models.IntegerField()
name = models.CharField(max_length=180)
role = models.CharField(max_length=8, null=True)
description = models.CharField(max_length=1408)
class Meta:
managed = False
ordering = ['sequenceNumber',]
class ProductTitleView(models.Model):
id = models.IntegerField(primary_key=True)
isbn = models.CharField(max_length=80)
titleText = models.CharField(max_length=300)
class Meta:
managed = False
ordering = ['titleText', 'isbn',]
Here are the serializers:
class ProductContributorViewSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = ProductContributorView
fields = ('id', 'product_id', 'sequenceNumber', 'name', 'role', 'description')
def create(self, validated_data):
contributor = ProductContributorView.objects.create(
id=validated_data['id'],
product_id=validated_data['product_id'],
sequenceNumber=validated_data['sequenceNumber'],
name=validated_data['name'],
role=validated_data['role'],
description=validated_data['description'])
return contributor
class ProductTitleViewSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
contributors = serializers.PrimaryKeyRelatedField(many=True, read_only=True)
class Meta:
model = ProductTitleView
fields = ('id', 'isbn', 'titleText', 'contributors')
Here are the views:
class ProductTitleViewList(generics.ListAPIView):
queryset = ProductTitleView.objects.all()
serializer_class = ProductTitleViewSerializer
class ProductContributorViewList(generics.ListAPIView):
queryset = ProductContributorView.objects.all()
serializer_class = ProductContributorViewSerializer
The basic idea is to have the contributors - author, illustrator, etc - returned with the book title based on the FK in the ProductContributorView view matching the id in the ProductTitleView.
When I run this, however, I get the following error:
1054, "Unknown column 'jester_productcontributorview.product_id_id' in 'field list'"
I didn't specify product_id_id in the field list, and I've also tried referring to the field as just product in the field list, but it still repeats the _id_id suffix. Hoping someone will point me to documentation where the FK naming conventions are explained or tell me what to change in the field list. Thanks!

Answer 1

You may just want to try renaming that product_id ForeignKey to just product.
This hints to why it may be broken, I suspect it's breaking somewhere in the serializers inspection of your models regarding the naming of the product_id field on the model.
When you define a ForeignKey on a model there are two properties available for that field. One is the property you define, the ForeignKey object, and you should use this to get the related model. Behind the scenes Django also creates another property which appends _id to the the foreign key's name, this property represents the IntegerField on the database which stores the relation. If you were to view the table in psql you will see the _id columns (and in your case, _id_id).