Django Rest Framework: Dynamically return subset of fields

Question

You can override the serializer __init__ method and set the fields attribute dynamically, based on the query params. You can access the request object throughout the context, passed to the serializer.

Here is a copy&paste from Django Rest Framework documentation example on the matter:

from rest_framework import serializers

class DynamicFieldsModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    """
    A ModelSerializer that takes an additional `fields` argument that
    controls which fields should be displayed.
    """

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        # Instantiate the superclass normally
        super(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

        fields = self.context['request'].query_params.get('fields')
        if fields:
            fields = fields.split(',')
            # Drop any fields that are not specified in the `fields` argument.
            allowed = set(fields)
            existing = set(self.fields.keys())
            for field_name in existing - allowed:
                self.fields.pop(field_name)


class UserSerializer(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer, serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ('url', 'username', 'email')

This functionality is available from a 3rd-party package.

pip install djangorestframework-queryfields

Declare your serializer like this:

from rest_framework.serializers import ModelSerializer
from drf_queryfields import QueryFieldsMixin

class MyModelSerializer(QueryFieldsMixin, ModelSerializer):
    ...

Then the fields can now be specified (client-side) by using query arguments:

GET /identities/?fields=id,data

Exclusion filtering is also possible, e.g. to return every field except id:

GET /identities/?fields!=id

disclaimer: I'm the author/maintainer.

serializers.py

class DynamicFieldsSerializerMixin(object):

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        # Don't pass the 'fields' arg up to the superclass
        fields = kwargs.pop('fields', None)

        # Instantiate the superclass normally
        super(DynamicFieldsSerializerMixin, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

        if fields is not None:
            # Drop any fields that are not specified in the `fields` argument.
            allowed = set(fields)
            existing = set(self.fields.keys())
            for field_name in existing - allowed:
                self.fields.pop(field_name)


class UserSerializer(DynamicFieldsSerializerMixin, serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):

    password = serializers.CharField(
        style={'input_type': 'password'}, write_only=True
    )

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ('id', 'username', 'password', 'email', 'first_name', 'last_name')


    def create(self, validated_data):
        user = User.objects.create(
            username=validated_data['username'],
            email=validated_data['email'],
            first_name=validated_data['first_name'],
            last_name=validated_data['last_name']
        )

        user.set_password(validated_data['password'])
        user.save()

        return user

views.py

class DynamicFieldsViewMixin(object):

 def get_serializer(self, *args, **kwargs):

    serializer_class = self.get_serializer_class()

    fields = None
    if self.request.method == 'GET':
        query_fields = self.request.QUERY_PARAMS.get("fields", None)

        if query_fields:
            fields = tuple(query_fields.split(','))


    kwargs['context'] = self.get_serializer_context()
    kwargs['fields'] = fields

    return serializer_class(*args, **kwargs)



class UserList(DynamicFieldsViewMixin, ListCreateAPIView):
    queryset = User.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer

Configure a new pagination serializer class

from rest_framework import pagination, serializers

class DynamicFieldsPaginationSerializer(pagination.BasePaginationSerializer):
    """
    A dynamic fields implementation of a pagination serializer.
    """
    count = serializers.Field(source='paginator.count')
    next = pagination.NextPageField(source='*')
    previous = pagination.PreviousPageField(source='*')

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        Override init to add in the object serializer field on-the-fly.
        """
        fields = kwargs.pop('fields', None)
        super(pagination.BasePaginationSerializer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        results_field = self.results_field
        object_serializer = self.opts.object_serializer_class

        if 'context' in kwargs:
            context_kwarg = {'context': kwargs['context']}
        else:
            context_kwarg = {}

        if fields:
            context_kwarg.update({'fields': fields})

        self.fields[results_field] = object_serializer(source='object_list',
                                                       many=True,
                                                       **context_kwarg)


# Set the pagination serializer setting
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    # [...]
    'DEFAULT_PAGINATION_SERIALIZER_CLASS': 'DynamicFieldsPaginationSerializer',
}

Make dynamic serializer

from rest_framework import serializers

class DynamicFieldsModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    """
    A ModelSerializer that takes an additional `fields` argument that
    controls which fields should be displayed.

    See:
        http://tomchristie.github.io/rest-framework-2-docs/api-guide/serializers
    """

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        # Don't pass the 'fields' arg up to the superclass
        fields = kwargs.pop('fields', None)

        # Instantiate the superclass normally
        super(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

        if fields:
            # Drop any fields that are not specified in the `fields` argument.
            allowed = set(fields)
            existing = set(self.fields.keys())
            for field_name in existing - allowed:
                self.fields.pop(field_name)
# Use it
class MyPonySerializer(DynamicFieldsModelSerializer):
    # [...]

Last, use a homemage mixin for your APIViews

class DynamicFields(object):
    """A mixins that allows the query builder to display certain fields"""

    def get_fields_to_display(self):
        fields = self.request.GET.get('fields', None)
        return fields.split(',') if fields else None

    def get_serializer(self, instance=None, data=None, files=None, many=False,
                       partial=False, allow_add_remove=False):
        """
        Return the serializer instance that should be used for validating and
        deserializing input, and for serializing output.
        """
        serializer_class = self.get_serializer_class()
        context = self.get_serializer_context()
        fields = self.get_fields_to_display()
        return serializer_class(instance, data=data, files=files,
                                many=many, partial=partial,
                                allow_add_remove=allow_add_remove,
                                context=context, fields=fields)

    def get_pagination_serializer(self, page):
        """
        Return a serializer instance to use with paginated data.
        """
        class SerializerClass(self.pagination_serializer_class):
            class Meta:
                object_serializer_class = self.get_serializer_class()

        pagination_serializer_class = SerializerClass
        context = self.get_serializer_context()
        fields = self.get_fields_to_display()
        return pagination_serializer_class(instance=page, context=context, fields=fields)

class MyPonyList(DynamicFields, generics.ListAPIView):
    # [...]

Request

Now, when you request a resource, you can add a parameter fields to show only specified fields in url. /?fields=field1,field2

You can find a reminder here : https://gist.github.com/Kmaschta/e28cf21fb3f0b90c597a

You could try Dynamic REST, which has support for dynamic fields (inclusion, exclusion), embedded / sideloaded objects, filtering, ordering, pagination, and more.

If you want something flexible like GraphQL, you can use django-restql. It supports nested data (both flat and iterable).

Example

from rest_framework import serializers
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django_restql.mixins import DynamicFieldsMixin

class UserSerializer(DynamicFieldsMixin, serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ('id', 'username', 'email', 'groups')

A regular request returns all fields.

GET /users

    [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "username": "yezyilomo",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "groups": [1,2]
      },
      ...
    ]

A request with the query parameter on the other hand returns only a subset of the fields:

GET /users/?query={id, username}

    [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "username": "yezyilomo"
      },
      ...
    ]

With django-restql you can access nested fields of any level. E.g

GET /users/?query={id, username, date_joined{year}}

    [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "username": "yezyilomo",
        "date_joined": {
            "year": 2018
        }
      },
      ...
    ]

For iterable nested fields, E.g groups on users.

GET /users/?query={id, username, groups{id, name}}

    [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "username": "yezyilomo",
        "groups": [
            {
                "id": 2,
                "name": "Auth_User"
            }
        ]
      },
      ...
    ]