Add section on dynamically modifying fields. Refs #958

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Tom Christie 2013-07-04 13:30:56 +01:00
parent 5fa100245c
commit b88bdfb9a5

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@ -423,6 +423,47 @@ You can create customized subclasses of `ModelSerializer` or `HyperlinkedModelSe
Doing so should be considered advanced usage, and will only be needed if you have some particular serializer requirements that you often need to repeat.
## Dynamically modifiying 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.
### Example
For example, if you wanted to be able to set which fields should be used by a serializer at the point of initializing it, you could create a serializer class like so:
class DynamicFieldsModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
"""
A ModelSerializer that takes an additional `fields` argument that
controls which fields should be displayed.
"""
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
# Don't pass the 'fields' arg up to the superclass
fields = kwargs.pop('fields', None)
# Instatiate the superclass normally
super(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
if fields:
# Drop any fields that are not specified in the `fields` argument.
allowed = set(fields)
existing = set(self.fields.keys())
for field_name in existing - allowed:
self.fields.pop(field_name)
This would then allow you to do the following:
>>> class UserSerializer(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer):
>>> class Meta:
>>> model = User
>>> fields = ('id', 'username', 'email')
>>>
>>> print UserSerializer(user)
{'id': 2, 'username': 'jonwatts', 'email': 'jon@example.com'}
>>>
>>> print UserSerializer(user, fields=('id', 'email'))
{'id': 2, 'email': 'jon@example.com'}
## Customising the default fields
The `field_mapping` attribute is a dictionary that maps model classes to serializer classes. Overriding the attribute will let you set a different set of default serializer classes.
@ -457,7 +498,7 @@ Note that the `model_field` argument will be `None` for reverse relationships.
Returns the field instance that should be used for non-relational, non-pk fields.
## Example
### Example
The following custom model serializer could be used as a base class for model serializers that should always exclude the pk by default.