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2013-12-09 08:47:06 +00:00

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<li class="main"><a href="#writable-nested-serializers">Writable nested serializers</a></li>
<li><a href="#one-to-many-data-structures">One-to-many data structures</a></li>
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<h1 id="writable-nested-serializers">Writable nested serializers</h1>
<p>Although flat data structures serve to properly delineate between the individual entities in your service, there are cases where it may be more appropriate or convenient to use nested data structures.</p>
<p>Nested data structures are easy enough to work with if they're read-only - simply nest your serializer classes and you're good to go. However, there are a few more subtleties to using writable nested serializers, due to the dependancies between the various model instances, and the need to save or delete multiple instances in a single action.</p>
<h2 id="one-to-many-data-structures">One-to-many data structures</h2>
<p><em>Example of a <strong>read-only</strong> nested serializer. Nothing complex to worry about here.</em></p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-py"><code>class ToDoItemSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = ToDoItem
fields = ('text', 'is_completed')
class ToDoListSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
items = ToDoItemSerializer(many=True, read_only=True)
class Meta:
model = ToDoList
fields = ('title', 'items')
</code></pre>
<p>Some example output from our serializer.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-py"><code>{
'title': 'Leaving party preperations',
'items': {
{'text': 'Compile playlist', 'is_completed': True},
{'text': 'Send invites', 'is_completed': False},
{'text': 'Clean house', 'is_completed': False}
}
}
</code></pre>
<p>Let's take a look at updating our nested one-to-many data structure.</p>
<h3 id="validation-errors">Validation errors</h3>
<h3 id="adding-and-removing-items">Adding and removing items</h3>
<h3 id="making-patch-requests">Making PATCH requests</h3>
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