Accessing Request Object in Viewset and Serializers in Django Rest Framework?

Question

I want to access the request object in my Views.py and Serializers.py in DRF. My Views.py:

class ProductViewSet(viewsets.ReadOnlyModelViewSet):

    """
    This viewset automatically provides `list` and `detail` actions.
    """
    queryset = Product.objects.all()
    serializer_class = ProductSerializer(context={'request': request})

My Serializers.py:

class ProductSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):

    get_sr_price = serializers.SerializerMethodField('get_sr_price_func')

    def get_sr_price_func(self, obj):
        return self.request.user ??

    class Meta:
        model = Product
        fields = (
            'title', 'slug', 'product_stores', 'get_sr_price')

In Serializers.py I get ProductSerializer' object has no attribute 'request'. Also In views.py I get NameError: name 'request' is not defined

How do I access request object? Do I have to pass it from views to serializers? Also what's the difference between views.py and serializers.py? Generally I write all the business logic in Views.py ; here also should I do all the queries/filters in the views or should I do them in serializers or it doesn't make a difference. New to DRF please help.

Answer 1

You don't need to include request object in the context as the generic views passes request object to the serializer context.

DRF Source code snippet:

# rest_framework/generics.py
def get_serializer_context(self):
    """
    Extra context provided to the serializer class.
    """
    return {
        'request': self.request, # request object is passed here
        'format': self.format_kwarg,
        'view': self
    }

In your serializer, you can access the request object using .context attribute.

The context dictionary can be used within any serializer field logic, such as a custom .to_representation() method, by accessing the self.context attribute.

class ProductSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):

    get_sr_price = serializers.SerializerMethodField('get_sr_price_func')

    def get_sr_price_func(self, obj):
        return self.context['request'].user # access the request object