Django rest framework migrating from 0.x to 2.1.9 - django

Question

After resolving some of my troubles while converting from django-rest-framwork 0.3.2 to the lates 2.1.9 I cannot see to fix this one (which i agree with a blog of Reinout.... it's a real pain in the ...)
I had this code:
class ApiSomeInputView(View):
form = ApiSomeForm
permissions = (IsAuthenticated, )
resource=SomeResource
def get(self, request):
"""
Handle GET requests.
"""
return "Error: No GET request Possible, use post"
def post(self, request, format=None):
some_thing = self.CONTENT['some_thing']
# check if something exist:
something = get_object_or_none(Something,some_field=int(some_thing))
if not something:
raise _404_SOMETHING_NOT_FOUND
#Note exludes are set in SomeResource
data = Serializer(depth=4).serialize(something)
return Response(status.HTTP_200_OK, data)
Now I have followed the tutorial and saw how you can do this different (maybe even prettier). By using slug in the url.
However.... I want to keep things backward compatible for the client side software... so I want to have this without putting the value of the query in the url. The client side uses json data and ContentType json in the header of a post.
In the first version of django rest framwork, I even got a nice browsable form in which to fill in the values for this query
My question: how to get this done in the latest version?
I can't seem to get a form in the views.... where I can fill in values and use in the proces
maybe good to post what I have tried until sofar...
first I changed the ModelResource in a Serializer:
class SomethingSerializer(HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Something
#exclude = ('id',)
depth = 4
and than the view changed in to:
class ApiSomeInputView(APIView):
permissions = (IsAuthenticated, )
def post(self, request, format=None):
some_thing = request.DATA['some_thing']
# check if something exist: .... well actually this above already does not work
something = get_object_or_none(Something,some_field=int(some_thing))
if not something:
raise _404_SOMETHING_NOT_FOUND
serializer = SomethingSerializer(something)
return Response(status.HTTP_200_OK, serializer.data)
Note: Bases upon the accepted answer (by Tom Christie) I als put an answer in which I show how I got it working (in more detail).

Answer 1

When you're inheriting from APIView, the browseable API renderer has no way of knowing what serializer you want to use to present in the HTML, so it falls back to allowing you to post a plain JSON (or whatever) representation.
If you instead inherit from GenericAPIView, set the serializer using the serializer_class attribute, and get an instance of the serializer using the get_serializer(...) method - see here, then the browseable API will use a form to display the user input.

Answer 2

Based upon the answer of Tom Christie (which I'll accept as the answer). I got it working:
I made an extra serializer which defines the field(s) to be shown to fill in for the post and shown using the GenericAPIView... (correct me if I Am wrong Tom, just documenting it here for others... so better say it correct)
class SomethingSerializerForm(Serializer):
some_thing = serializers.IntegerField()
And with this serializer and the other one I aready had.
And a view:
class ApiSomeInputView(GenericAPIView):
permissions = (IsAuthenticated, )
model = Something
serializer_class = SomethingSerializerForm
def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
serializer = self.get_serializer(data=request.DATA)
if not serializer.is_valid():
raise ParseError(detail="No valid values")
some_thing = request.DATA['some_thing']
something = get_object_or_none(Something,some_field=int(some_thing))
if not something:
raise Http404
serializer = SomethingSerializer(something)
return Response(serializer.data)
Above is working, and exactly the same as before....
I still got the feeling I Am abusing the Serializer class as a Form.