Validation of complex nested objects in Django Rest Framework 3

Question

My situation: The client needs to PUT a deep object graph to my Rest Framework 3-powered server, and there are lots of validation rules that need to be applied to the incoming data. For example, imagine incoming JSON like so (this is a contrived example):

{  // a sales order
    dateOrdered: '2015-02-04T13:23:00-800',
    customer: 5400,  // the customer ID
    items: [
        {
            sku: "TV100",  // the stock item ID
            quantity: 1,
        },
        {
            sku: "HDMI04",  // the stock item ID
            quantity: 3,
        }
    ]
}

And the following serializers:

class OrderSerializer(ModelSerializer):
    dateOrdered = DateTimeField()
    customer = PrimaryKeyRelatedField(queryset=Customer.objects.all())
    items = OrderItemSerializer(many=True)
    class Meta:
        model = Order
    def validate(self, data):
        # see my question below

class OrderItemSerializer(ModelSerializer):
    sku = PrimaryKeyRelatedField(queryset=Item.objects.all())
    quantity = IntegerField()
    class Meta:
        model = OrderItem

The validate() method will receive a Python dict that is a mix of dicts, lists, and Model objects, like so:

data = {
    'dateOrdered':  datetime.datetime(...)
    'customer':  <Customer.object at 0x....>
    'items': [
        {
            'sku': <Item.object at 0x....>
            'quantity': 1,
        },
        {
            'sku': <Item.object at 0x....>
            'quantity': 3,
        }
    ]
}

My problem: validating this "mixed" data structure is ugly (especially in my actual application, where the data structure is much deeper and more complex). I and future maintainers need to remember which "nodes" are Model objects vs dicts; the lists and dicts have no business logic methods to help with the validation; etc.

It would be much nicer to get the "final" object graph of Django models and just call clean() on that -- doing so would allow me to implement my validation logic in the models themselves, taking advantage of the object graph, allowing reuse of the validation logic in other contexts, etc.

My question: does anyone have any experience with complex validation like this, and if so, do you have any advice or best practices you can share?

Thanks!

similar question over here with 3 distinct approaches discussed: stackoverflow.com/questions/53651167/… — John Q
– John Q, Commented Mar 2, 2020 at 15:48
and another very good one here: stackoverflow.com/questions/37324341/… — John Q
– John Q, Commented Mar 2, 2020 at 15:52

zymud · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-08 19:37:54Z

0

I think you can try to create items in sub-serilizers:

class OrderItemSerializer(ModelSerializer):
    sku = PrimaryKeyRelatedField(queryset=Item.objects.all())
    quantity = IntegerField()
    class Meta:
        model = OrderItem

    def to_internal_value(self, data):
        item = OrderItem(sku=data['sku'], quantity=data['quantity'])
        item.clean()
        return {'item': item}

Then you will receive something like this:

data = {
    'dateOrdered':  datetime.datetime(...)
    'customer':  <Customer.object at 0x....>
    'items': [
        {
            'item': <OrderItem.object>
        },
        {
            'item': <OrderItem.object>
        }
    ]
}

Warning: new OrderItemSerializer is quite specific and can be used only as nested serializer.

answered Jul 8, 2015 at 19:37

zymud

2,24917 silver badges26 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Ian Phillips Over a year ago

Interesting, this is worth investigating. In the meantime... are you needlessly wrapping each OrderItem in a dict? I'd like items to be a list of OrderItem instances.

zymud Over a year ago

Actually not. You can return OrderItem object as internal value.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Validation of complex nested objects in Django Rest Framework 3

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related