Add disabling of declared fields on serializer subclasses (#4764)

* Add test for disabling declared fields on child
* Check that declared base field is not in attrs
* Update meta inheritance docs to include serializer
* Test that meta fields cannot be declared as None
* Add docs example for declarative field disabling

docs/api-guide/serializers.md

@@ -578,16 +578,6 @@ Alternative representations include serializing using hyperlinks, serializing co
 
 For full details see the [serializer relations][relations] documentation.
 
-## Inheritance of the 'Meta' class
-
-The inner `Meta` class on serializers is not inherited from parent classes by default. This is the same behavior as with Django's `Model` and `ModelForm` classes. If you want the `Meta` class to inherit from a parent class you must do so explicitly. For example:
-
-    class AccountSerializer(MyBaseSerializer):
-        class Meta(MyBaseSerializer.Meta):
-            model = Account
-
-Typically we would recommend *not* using inheritance on inner Meta classes, but instead declaring all options explicitly.
-
 ## Customizing field mappings
 
 The ModelSerializer class also exposes an API that you can override in order to alter how serializer fields are automatically determined when instantiating the serializer.
@@ -1025,6 +1015,40 @@ If any of the validation fails, then the method should raise a `serializers.Vali
 
 The `data` argument passed to this method will normally be the value of `request.data`, so the datatype it provides will depend on the parser classes you have configured for your API.
 
+## Serializer Inheritance
+
+Similar to Django forms, you can extend and reuse serializers through inheritance. This allows you to declare a common set of fields or methods on a parent class that can then be used in a number of serializers. For example,
+
+    class MyBaseSerializer(Serializer):
+        my_field = serializers.CharField()
+
+        def validate_my_field(self):
+            ...
+
+    class MySerializer(MyBaseSerializer):
+        ...
+
+Like Django's `Model` and `ModelForm` classes, the inner `Meta` class on serializers does not implicitly inherit from it's parents' inner `Meta` classes. If you want the `Meta` class to inherit from a parent class you must do so explicitly. For example:
+
+    class AccountSerializer(MyBaseSerializer):
+        class Meta(MyBaseSerializer.Meta):
+            model = Account
+
+Typically we would recommend *not* using inheritance on inner Meta classes, but instead declaring all options explicitly.
+
+Additionally, the following caveats apply to serializer inheritance:
+
+* Normal Python name resolution rules apply. If you have multiple base classes that declare a `Meta` inner class, only the first one will be used. This means the child’s `Meta`, if it exists, otherwise the `Meta` of the first parent, etc.
+* It’s possible to declaratively remove a `Field` inherited from a parent class by setting the name to be `None` on the subclass.
+
+        class MyBaseSerializer(ModelSerializer):
+            my_field = serializers.CharField()
+
+        class MySerializer(MyBaseSerializer):
+            my_field = None
+
+    However, you can only use this technique to opt out from a field defined declaratively by a parent class; it won’t prevent the `ModelSerializer` from generating a default field. To opt-out from default fields, see [Specifying which fields to include](#specifying-which-fields-to-include).
+
 ## Dynamically modifying fields
 
 Once a serializer has been initialized, the dictionary of fields that are set on the serializer may be accessed using the `.fields` attribute.  Accessing and modifying this attribute allows you to dynamically modify the serializer.

rest_framework/serializers.py

@@ -305,7 +305,11 @@ class SerializerMetaclass(type):
         # in order to maintain the correct order of fields.
         for base in reversed(bases):
             if hasattr(base, '_declared_fields'):
-                fields = list(base._declared_fields.items()) + fields
+                fields = [
+                    (field_name, obj) for field_name, obj
+                    in base._declared_fields.items()
+                    if field_name not in attrs
+                ] + fields
 
         return OrderedDict(fields)
 

tests/test_serializer.py

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import re
 
 import pytest
 
+from django.db import models
+
 from rest_framework import fields, relations, serializers
 from rest_framework.compat import unicode_repr
 from rest_framework.fields import Field
@@ -413,3 +415,42 @@ class Test4606Regression:
         serializer = self.Serializer(data=[{"name": "liz"}], many=True)
         with pytest.raises(serializers.ValidationError):
             serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)
+
+
+class TestDeclaredFieldInheritance:
+    def test_declared_field_disabling(self):
+        class Parent(serializers.Serializer):
+            f1 = serializers.CharField()
+            f2 = serializers.CharField()
+
+        class Child(Parent):
+            f1 = None
+
+        class Grandchild(Child):
+            pass
+
+        assert len(Parent._declared_fields) == 2
+        assert len(Child._declared_fields) == 1
+        assert len(Grandchild._declared_fields) == 1
+
+    def test_meta_field_disabling(self):
+        # Declaratively setting a field on a child class will *not* prevent
+        # the ModelSerializer from generating a default field.
+        class MyModel(models.Model):
+            f1 = models.CharField(max_length=10)
+            f2 = models.CharField(max_length=10)
+
+        class Parent(serializers.ModelSerializer):
+            class Meta:
+                model = MyModel
+                fields = ['f1', 'f2']
+
+        class Child(Parent):
+            f1 = None
+
+        class Grandchild(Child):
+            pass
+
+        assert len(Parent().get_fields()) == 2
+        assert len(Child().get_fields()) == 2
+        assert len(Grandchild().get_fields()) == 2