Rest Framework Actions

Django Rest Framework provides some cool generic classes like ModelViewSet to create services using a defined serializer and model but sometimes you want to change the serializer class or queryset used in each action or method. rest-framework-actions is a DRF app extension to give you more control over the actions of ModelViewSet. You can specify a serializer class to each action like list, retrieve, update.

• Source Code: https://github.com/AlexisMunera98/rest-framework-actions
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/rest-framework-actions/
• License: MIT

Installation

1. Install using pip

   pip install rest-framework-actions

2. Add "rest_framework_actions" to your INSTALLED_APPS setting like this:

   INSTALLED_APPS = [
       ...
       'rest_framework_actions,
   ]

   Note: Please be sure add after "rest_framework"

3. Then simply import the mixin or viewset into any views.py in which you'd want to use it:

   from rest_framework_actions.mixins import ListActionMixin, RetrieveActionMixin, CreateActionMixin, UpdateActionMixin
   from rest_framework_actions.viewsets import ActionsModelViewSet

   Note: This package is built on top of Django Rest Framework's generic views and serializers, so it presupposes that Django Rest Framework is installed and added to your project as well.

How to use

Given the following scenario:

# models.py
from django.db import models

class Choice(models.Model):
 title = models.CharField(max_length=160)
 description = models.TextField()
 like_votes = models.IntegerField()
 dislike_votes = models.IntegerField()
 expire_at = models.DateTimeField()
 created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)


# serializers.py
from rest_framework import serializers

class ChoiceSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
 class Meta:
     model = Choice
     fields = '__all__'


# views.py
from rest_framework import viewsets

class ChoiceViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
 serializer_class = ChoiceSerializer
 queryset = Choice.objects.all()

You have a simple CRUD service over Choice model with this behavior:

• Choice list: localhost:8000/choices/

  [
     {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Develop with Django",
      "description": "Do you like develop apps with django?",
      "like_votes": 6353,
      "dislike_votes": 234,
      "expire_at": "2021-05-28T04:29:33Z",
      "created_at": "2021-01-11T04:29:38.387891Z"
     },
     ...
  ]

• Choice detail: localhost:8000/choices/1/

  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Develop with Django",
    "description": "Do you like develop apps with django?",
    "like_votes": 6353,
    "dislike_votes": 234,
    "expire_at": "2021-05-28T04:29:33Z",
    "created_at": "2021-01-11T04:29:38.387891Z"
  }

But you want to serialize in different ways in each method. How could you get it?

Change your ModelViewSet views to ActionsModelViewSet in this way:

# serializers.py
class ChoiceSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Choice
        fields = '__all__'


class ListChoiceSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Choice
        fields = ('title', 'like_votes', 'dislike_votes')


# views.py
from rest_framework_actions.viewsets import ActionsModelViewSet

class ChoiceViewSet(ActionsModelViewSet):
    list_serializer_class = ListChoiceSerializer
    serializer_class = ChoiceSerializer  # All unspecified actions will use this as default

    list_queryset = Choice.objects.exclude(expire_at__lte=timezone.now())  # Even you can use different queryset to list
    queryset = Choice.objects.all()

and voilà:

• Choice list: localhost:8000/choices/

  [
   {
       "title": "Develop with Django",
       "like_votes": 6353,
       "dislike_votes": 234
   }
   ...
  ]

• Choice detail: localhost:8000/choices/1/

  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Develop with Django",
    "description": "Do you like develop apps with django?",
    "like_votes": 6353,
    "dislike_votes": 234,
    "expire_at": "2021-05-28T04:29:33Z",
    "created_at": "2021-01-11T04:29:38.387891Z"
  }