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Django REST framework 3.12

REST framework 3.12 brings a handful of refinements to the OpenAPI schema generation, plus support for Django's new database-agnostic JSONField, and some improvements to the SearchFilter class.

Grouping operations with tags.

Open API schemas will now automatically include tags, based on the first element in the URL path.

For example...

Method Path Tags
GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE /users/{id}/ ['users']
GET, POST /users/ ['users']
GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE /orders/{id}/ ['orders']
GET, POST /orders/ ['orders']

The tags used for a particular view may also be overridden...

class MyOrders(APIView):
    schema = AutoSchema(tags=["users", "orders"])
    ...

See the schema documentation for more information.

Customizing the operation ID.

REST framework automatically determines operation IDs to use in OpenAPI schemas. The latest version provides more control for overriding the behaviour used to generate the operation IDs.

See the schema documentation for more information.

Support for OpenAPI components.

In order to output more graceful OpenAPI schemes, REST framework 3.12 now defines components in the schema, and then references them inside request and response objects. This is in contrast with the previous approach, which fully expanded the request and response bodies for each operation.

The names used for a component default to using the serializer class name, but may be overridden if needed...

class MyOrders(APIView):
    schema = AutoSchema(component_name="OrderDetails")

More Public API

Many methods on the AutoSchema class have now been promoted to public API, allowing you to more fully customize the schema generation. The following methods are now available for overriding...

  • get_path_parameters
  • get_pagination_parameters
  • get_filter_parameters
  • get_request_body
  • get_responses
  • get_serializer
  • get_paginator
  • map_serializer
  • map_field
  • map_choice_field
  • map_field_validators
  • allows_filters.

See the schema docs for details on using custom AutoSchema subclasses.

Support for JSONField.

Django 3.1 deprecated the existing django.contrib.postgres.fields.JSONField in favour of a new database-agnositic JSONField.

REST framework 3.12 now supports this new model field, and ModelSerializer classes will correctly map the model field.

SearchFilter improvements

There are a couple of significant improvements to the SearchFilter class.

Nested searches against JSONField and HStoreField

The class now supports nested search within JSONField and HStoreField, using the double underscore notation for traversing which element of the field the search should apply to.

class SitesSearchView(generics.ListAPIView):
    """
    An API view to return a list of archaeological sites, optionally filtered
    by a search against the site name or location. (Location searches are
    matched against the region and country names.)
    """

    queryset = Sites.objects.all()
    serializer_class = SitesSerializer
    filter_backends = [filters.SearchFilter]
    search_fields = ["site_name", "location__region", "location__country"]

Searches against annotate fields

Django allows querysets to create additional virtual fields, using the .annotate method. We now support searching against annotate fields.

class PublisherSearchView(generics.ListAPIView):
    """
    Search for publishers, optionally filtering the search against the average
    rating of all their books.
    """

    queryset = Publisher.objects.annotate(avg_rating=Avg("book__rating"))
    serializer_class = PublisherSerializer
    filter_backends = [filters.SearchFilter]
    search_fields = ["avg_rating"]

Deprecations

serializers.NullBooleanField

serializers.NullBooleanField is now pending deprecation, and will be removed in 3.14.

Instead use serializers.BooleanField field and set allow_null=True which does the same thing.

Funding

REST framework is a collaboratively funded project. If you use REST framework commercially we strongly encourage you to invest in its continued development by signing up for a paid plan.

Every single sign-up helps us make REST framework long-term financially sustainable.

Many thanks to all our wonderful sponsors, and in particular to our premium backers, Sentry, Stream, ESG, Rollbar, Cadre, Kloudless, Lights On Software, and Retool.