In Django REST Framework the very concept of Serializing is to convert DB data to a datatype that can be used by javascript. Every serializer comes with some fields (entries) which are going to be processed. For example if you have a class with name Employee and its fields as Employee_id, Employee_name, is_admin, etc. Then, you would need AutoField, CharField and BooleanField for storing and manipulating data through Django. Similarly, serializer also works with same principle and has fields that are used to create a serializer.
This article revolves around Boolean Fields in Serializers in Django REST Framework. There are two major fields for Boolean values – BooleanField and NullBooleanField.
BooleanField
A boolean field used to wrap True or False values. It works the same as BooleanField – Django Models. By default, serializers.BooleanField instances as created by default as False.
Syntax –
field_name = serializers.BooleanField()
NullBooleanField
A boolean field that accepts True, False and Null values. It works the same as NullBooleanField – Django Models. By default, serializers.NullBooleanField instances as created by default as none.
Syntax –
field_name = serializers.NullBooleanField()
How to use Boolean Fields in Serializers ?
To explain the usage of Boolean Fields, let’s use the same project setup from – How to Create a basic API using Django Rest Framework ?.
Now that you have a file called serializers in your project, let’s create a serializer with BooleanField and NullBooleanField as the fields.
Python3
#import serializer from rest_frameworkfrom rest_framework import serializersclass Geeks(object): def __init__(self, bool1, bool2): self.field_1 = bool1 self.field_2 = bool2# create a serializerclass GeeksSerializer(serializers.Serializer): # initialize fields field_1 = serializers.BooleanField() field_2 = serializers.NullBooleanField() |
Now let us create some objects and try serializing them and check if they are actually working, Run, –
Python manage.py shell
Now, run following python commands in the shell
# import everything from serializers
>>> from apis.serializers import *
# create a object of type Geeks
>>> obj = Geeks(bool1 = True, bool2 = True)
# serialize the object
>>> serializer = GeeksSerializer(obj)
# print serialized data
>>> serializer.data
{'field_1': True, 'field_2': True}
# another example
>>> obj1 = Geeks(bool1 = True, bool2 = None)
>>> serializer = GeeksSerializer(obj1)
>>> serializer.data
{'field_1': True, 'field_2': None}
Here is the output of all these operations on terminal –
Core arguments in serializer fields
.math-table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; } .math-table td { border: 1px solid #5fb962; text-align: left !important; padding: 8px; } .math-table th { border: 1px solid #5fb962; padding: 8px; } .math-table tr>th{ background-color: #c6ebd9; vertical-align: middle; } .math-table tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: #ffffff; }
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| read_only | Set this to True to ensure that the field is used when serializing a representation, but is not used when creating or updating an instance during deserialization |
| write_only | Set this to True to ensure that the field may be used when updating or creating an instance, but is not included when serializing the representation. |
| required | Setting this to False also allows the object attribute or dictionary key to be omitted from output when serializing the instance. |
| default | If set, this gives the default value that will be used for the field if no input value is supplied. |
| allow_null | Normally an error will be raised if None is passed to a serializer field. Set this keyword argument to True if None should be considered a valid value. |
| source | The name of the attribute that will be used to populate the field. |
| validators | A list of validator functions which should be applied to the incoming field input, and which either raise a validation error or simply return. |
| error_messages | A dictionary of error codes to error messages. |
| label | A short text string that may be used as the name of the field in HTML form fields or other descriptive elements. |
| help_text | A text string that may be used as a description of the field in HTML form fields or other descriptive elements. |
| initial | A value that should be used for pre-populating the value of HTML form fields. |
