I have a serializer in Django REST framework defined as follows:
class QuestionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
id = serializers.CharField()
question_text = QuestionTextSerializer()
topic = TopicSerializer()
Now I have two API views that use the above serializer:
class QuestionWithTopicView(generics.RetrieveAPIView):
# I wish to include all three fields - id, question_text
# and topic in this API.
serializer_class = QuestionSerializer
class QuestionWithoutTopicView(generics.RetrieveAPIView):
# I want to exclude topic in this API.
serializer_class = ExamHistorySerializer
One solution is to write two different serializers. But there must be a easier solution to conditionally exclude a field from a given serializer.
Have you tried this technique
class QuestionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
remove_fields = kwargs.pop('remove_fields', None)
super(QuestionSerializer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
if remove_fields:
# for multiple fields in a list
for field_name in remove_fields:
self.fields.pop(field_name)
class QuestionWithoutTopicView(generics.RetrieveAPIView):
serializer_class = QuestionSerializer(remove_fields=['field_to_remove1' 'field_to_remove2'])
If not, once try it.
Creating a new serializer is the way to go. By conditionally removing fields in a serializer you are adding extra complexity and making you code harder to quickly diagnose. You should try to avoid mixing the responsibilities of a single class.
Following basic object oriented design principles is the way to go.
QuestionWithTopicView is a QuestionWithoutTopicView but with an additional field.
class QuestionSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
id = serializers.CharField()
question_text = QuestionTextSerializer()
topic = TopicSerializer()
class TopicQuestionSerializer(QuestionSerializer):
topic = TopicSerializer()