Error serializing MaxValueValidator.limit_value of type datetime.timedelta

[voyc-jean]

Describe the bug
Similar to #357, the yaml renderer is unable to serialize a MaxValueValidator.limit_value of type datetime.timedelta.

Using the JSON renderer solves the issue.

To Reproduce
Add a MaxValueValidator to a model field with a limit_value type of datetime.timedelta:

import datetime
from django.db import models

class MyModel(models.Model):
    duration = models.DurationField(
        default=datetime.timedelta(seconds=10),
        validators=[
            MaxValueValidator(
                limit_value=datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600),
                message='Limit message.',
            ),
        ],
    )

Raised exception:

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/yaml/representer.py", line 231, in represent_undefined
    raise RepresenterError("cannot represent an object", data)
yaml.representer.RepresenterError: ('cannot represent an object', datetime.timedelta(seconds=3600))

Expected behavior
The yaml render should be able to serialize datetime.timedelta values.

[tfranzel]

hi @voyc-jean,

nice catch! yes that is a bug. i had a quick look into it and found that DRF's JSONEncoder serializes timedelta as str(obj.total_seconds()), while Django's DjangoJSONEncoder actually produces '{}P{}DT{:02d}H{:02d}M{:02d}{}S' (ISO8601) via duration_iso_string.

so you would get total seconds from DRF without further modification. for parity we should probably do the same for yaml.

furthermore, i think we should introduce a hook into our normalize_result_object to allow for custom behavior before the actual encoders are hit. this would allow to account for user modified encoders.

[tfranzel]

this should get rid of the exception but i think we have one issue left. the validator fills minimum/maximum which is required to be a number in the spec and thus my schema validation failed afterwards. can you confirm this?

[voyc-jean]

Hi @tfranzel,

Thanks a lot for the quick solution! I can confirm that this gets rid of the exception, though after looking into this further I think there might be more to the issue.

I've just tested this and you're correct that DRF's JSONEncoder responds with str(obj.total_seconds()).

However, the DRF DurationField serializes these values to a 'duration string' by using django.utils.duration.duration_string, formatting the value for representation as: [DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss[.uuuuuu].

Values are parsed back from 'duration strings' to timedelta by DRF's django.utils.dateparse.parse_duration.

I think the schema (including the minimum / maximum) should reflect the same?

Thanks.

[tfranzel]

ok so to summarize. depending on how one would go through the code, you could end up with

• duration_iso_string (raw via django encoder)
• duration_string (via field)
• str(total_seconds) (raw via DRF encoder)

the real issue i see is that maximum/minimum is required to be a number in the OpenAPI spec. it does not apply to anything else, which is why validation failed. so none of the above outcomes are valid values wrt OpenAPI.

bummer! the least broken thing could be to remove it altogether for non-numbers.

[voyc-jean]

ok so to summarize. depending on how one would go through the code, you could end up with

• duration_iso_string (raw via django encoder)
• duration_string (via field)
• str(total_seconds) (raw via DRF encoder)

the real issue i see is that maximum/minimum is required to be a number in the OpenAPI spec. it does not apply to anything else, which is why validation failed. so none of the above outcomes are valid values wrt OpenAPI.

bummer! the least broken thing could be to remove it altogether for non-numbers.

I see this has been fixed now in release 0.17.0, thanks @tfranzel!

Regarding the minumum/maximum issue, I agree that the best course of action would be to remove them for non-number values. Should I create a separate issue for this?

[tfranzel]

you're welcome! i think we can reuse this issue, as it is still closely related to the remaining issue.

[ngnpope]

@tfranzel I guess this one can be labelled fix confirmation pending after 37ee061?

[tfranzel]

had the exact same thought yesterday. 👍 thx

[dirodriguezm]

Hi, I'm using drf's DurationField with choices that are datetime.timedelta objects and I get the error Object of type timedelta is not JSON serializable. Is this issue related to my problem ?

[tfranzel]

@dirodriguezm please post a code example. serializers.DurationField() does not accept choices. it's hard to tell if this is related without a snippet that produces that error. also please make sure to update to the most recent version. further fixes are on master also.

[tfranzel]

closing this issue for now. feel free to comment if anything is missing or not working and we will follow-up.

@dirodriguezm feel free to open a new issue if your problem persists.