""" .. >>> from djangorestframework.parsers import FormParser >>> from djangorestframework.resource import Resource >>> from djangorestframework.compat import RequestFactory >>> from urllib import urlencode >>> req = RequestFactory().get('/') >>> some_resource = Resource() >>> trash = some_resource.dispatch(req)# Some variables are set only when calling dispatch Data flatening ---------------- Here is some example data, which would eventually be sent along with a post request : >>> inpt = urlencode([ ... ('key1', 'bla1'), ... ('key2', 'blo1'), ('key2', 'blo2'), ... ]) Default behaviour for :class:`parsers.FormParser`, is to return a single value for each parameter : >>> FormParser(some_resource).parse(inpt) == {'key1': 'bla1', 'key2': 'blo1'} True However, you can customize this behaviour by subclassing :class:`parsers.FormParser`, and overriding :meth:`parsers.FormParser.is_a_list` : >>> class MyFormParser(FormParser): ... ... def is_a_list(self, key, val_list): ... return len(val_list) > 1 This new parser only flattens the lists of parameters that contain a single value. >>> MyFormParser(some_resource).parse(inpt) == {'key1': 'bla1', 'key2': ['blo1', 'blo2']} True Submitting an empty list -------------------------- When submitting an empty select multiple, like this one :: The browsers usually strip the parameter completely. A hack to avoid this, and therefore being able to submit an empty select multiple, is to submit a value that tells the server that the list is empty :: :class:`parsers.FormParser` provides the server-side implementation for this hack. Considering the following posted data : >>> inpt = urlencode([ ... ('key1', 'blo1'), ('key1', '_empty'), ... ('key2', '_empty'), ... ]) :class:`parsers.FormParser` strips the values ``_empty`` from all the lists. >>> MyFormParser(some_resource).parse(inpt) == {'key1': 'blo1'} True Oh ... but wait a second, the parameter ``key2`` isn't even supposed to be a list, so the parser just stripped it. >>> class MyFormParser(FormParser): ... ... def is_a_list(self, key, val_list): ... return key == 'key2' ... >>> MyFormParser(some_resource).parse(inpt) == {'key1': 'blo1', 'key2': []} True Better like that. Note also that you can configure something else than ``_empty`` for the empty value by setting :class:`parsers.FormParser.EMPTY_VALUE`. """