Django rest framework nested self-referential obje

Question

I have model that looks like this:

class Category(models.Model):
    parentCategory = models.ForeignKey('self', blank=True, null=True, related_name='subcategories')
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    description = models.CharField(max_length=500)

I managed to get flat json representation of all categories with serializer:

class CategorySerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
    parentCategory = serializers.PrimaryKeyRelatedField()
    subcategories = serializers.ManyRelatedField()

    class Meta:
        model = Category
        fields = ('parentCategory', 'name', 'description', 'subcategories')

Now what I want to do is for subcategories list to have inline json representation of subcategories instead of their ids. How would I do that with django-rest-framework? I tried to find it in documentation, but it seems incomplete.

Answer 1

I was able to achieve this result using a serializers.SerializerMethodField. I'm not sure if this is the best way, but worked for me:

class CategorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):

    subcategories = serializers.SerializerMethodField(
        read_only=True, method_name="get_child_categories")

    class Meta:
        model = Category
        fields = [
            'name',
            'category_id',
            'subcategories',
        ]

    def get_child_categories(self, obj):
        """ self referral field """
        serializer = CategorySerializer(
            instance=obj.subcategories_set.all(),
            many=True
        )
        return serializer.data

Answer 2

I thought I'd join in on the fun!

Via wjin and Mark Chackerian I created a more general solution, which works for direct tree-like models and tree structures which have a through model. I'm not sure if this belongs in it's own answer but I thought I might as well put it somewhere. I included a max_depth option which will prevent infinite recursion, at the deepest level children are represented as URLS (that's the final else clause if you'd rather it wasn't a url).

from rest_framework.reverse import reverse
from rest_framework import serializers

class RecursiveField(serializers.Serializer):
    """
    Can be used as a field within another serializer,
    to produce nested-recursive relationships. Works with
    through models, and limited and/or arbitrarily deep trees.
    """
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        self._recurse_through = kwargs.pop('through_serializer', None)
        self._recurse_max = kwargs.pop('max_depth', None)
        self._recurse_view = kwargs.pop('reverse_name', None)
        self._recurse_attr = kwargs.pop('reverse_attr', None)
        self._recurse_many = kwargs.pop('many', False)

        super(RecursiveField, self).__init__(**kwargs)

    def to_representation(self, value):
        parent = self.parent
        if isinstance(parent, serializers.ListSerializer):
            parent = parent.parent

        lvl = getattr(parent, '_recurse_lvl', 1)
        max_lvl = self._recurse_max or getattr(parent, '_recurse_max', None)

        # Defined within RecursiveField(through_serializer=A)
        serializer_class = self._recurse_through
        is_through = has_through = True

        # Informed by previous serializer (for through m2m)
        if not serializer_class:
            is_through = False
            serializer_class = getattr(parent, '_recurse_next', None)

        # Introspected for cases without through models.
        if not serializer_class:
            has_through = False
            serializer_class = parent.__class__

        if is_through or not max_lvl or lvl <= max_lvl: 
            serializer = serializer_class(
                value, many=self._recurse_many, context=self.context)

            # Propagate hereditary attributes.
            serializer._recurse_lvl = lvl + is_through or not has_through
            serializer._recurse_max = max_lvl

            if is_through:
                # Delay using parent serializer till next lvl.
                serializer._recurse_next = parent.__class__

            return serializer.data
        else:
            view = self._recurse_view or self.context['request'].resolver_match.url_name
            attr = self._recurse_attr or 'id'
            return reverse(view, args=[getattr(value, attr)],
                           request=self.context['request'])

Answer 3

@wjin's solution was working great for me until I upgraded to Django REST framework 3.0.0, which deprecates to_native. Here's my DRF 3.0 solution, which is a slight modification.

Say you have a model with a self-referential field, for example threaded comments in a property called "replies". You have a tree representation of this comment thread, and you want to serialize the tree

First, define your reusable RecursiveField class

class RecursiveField(serializers.Serializer):
    def to_representation(self, value):
        serializer = self.parent.parent.__class__(value, context=self.context)
        return serializer.data

Then, for your serializer, use the the RecursiveField to serialize the value of "replies"

class CommentSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
    replies = RecursiveField(many=True)

    class Meta:
        model = Comment
        fields = ('replies, ....)

Easy peasy, and you only need 4 lines of code for a re-usable solution.

NOTE: If your data structure is more complicated than a tree, like say a directed acyclic graph (FANCY!) then you could try @wjin's package -- see his solution. But I haven't had any problems with this solution for MPTTModel based trees.

Answer 4

With Django REST framework 3.3.1, I needed the following code to get subcategories added to categories:

models.py

class Category(models.Model):

    id = models.AutoField(
        primary_key=True
    )

    name = models.CharField(
        max_length=45, 
        blank=False, 
        null=False
    )

    parentid = models.ForeignKey(
        'self',
        related_name='subcategories',
        blank=True,
        null=True
    )

    class Meta:
        db_table = 'Categories'

serializers.py

class SubcategorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):

    class Meta:
        model = Category
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'parentid')


class CategorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    subcategories = SubcategorySerializer(many=True, read_only=True)

    class Meta:
        model = Category
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'parentid', 'subcategories')