Django REST Framework join table results in attribute exception - django

Question

I am building an API in Django using REST Framework but am running into an issue.
Serializers:
class SquadSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
class Meta:
model = Squad
fields = ('name')
id = serializers.IntegerField(read_only=True)
name = serializers.CharField(style={'base_template': 'textarea.html'})
class MembershipSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
class Meta:
model = Membership
fields = ('employee_id', 'squad_id')
squad = SquadSerializer()
employee = EmployeeSerializer()
class EmployeeSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
habitat = HabitatSerializer()
class Meta:
model = Employee
fields = ('id', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'function',
'start_date', 'end_date', 'visible_site', 'habitat')
Models:
class Employee(models.Model):
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=30)
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=40)
function = models.CharField(max_length=50)
start_date = models.DateField()
end_date = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
visible_site = models.BooleanField()
habitat = models.ForeignKey(Habitat, on_delete=models.SET_NULL, null=True, blank=True)
class Squad(models.Model):
name = models.TextField(max_length=40)
class Membership(models.Model):
class Meta:
unique_together = (('employee', 'squad'))
employee = models.ForeignKey(Employee, on_delete=models.CASCADE, null=False, blank=True, default=1)
squad = models.ForeignKey(Squad, on_delete=models.CASCADE, null=False, blank=True, default=1)
The problem is that I keep running into this error:
AttributeError: Got AttributeError when attempting to get a value for field `name` on serializer `SquadSerializer`.
The serializer field might be named incorrectly and not match any attribute or key on the `Membership` instance.
Original exception text was: 'Membership' object has no attribute 'name'.
When executing this test (and a couple others)
def test_membership_serializer_id_name_field_content(self):
"""
The name field of a squad should contain an id
"""
serializer = create_membership_serializer(self.membership, '')
self.assertEqual(serializer.data['id'], self.membership.id)
I've seen multipe people with the same issues here on Stack Overflow but the often suggest solution (to add many=True to SquadSerializer() and EmployeeSerializer()) doesn't work. I hope anyone here has any knowledge on why this happens.

Answer 1

If you want to map your seriailizer to your model, you should use ModelSerializer. In tupple, if it has only one value, you should write it as (1,) not (1). Your SquadSerializer should be like
class SquadSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Squad
fields = ('name',) # or ('id', 'name')
id = serializers.IntegerField(read_only=True)
name = serializers.CharField(style={'base_template': 'textarea.html'})
Your MembershipSerializer should be like
class MembershipSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Membership
fields = ('employee', 'squad')
squad = SquadSerializer()
employee = EmployeeSerializer()