Return key/attribute JSON object instead of array of JSONs for model Django Rest Framework

Question

Like mentioned in the title.I have such JSON array being returned from backend:

[
    {id:1, name:'name1'},
    {id:2, name:'name2'},
    {id:3, name:'name3'},
    {id:4, name:'name4'}
]

and I would like to return something like this instead:

{
  "1": {id:1, name:'name1'},
  "2": {id:2, name:'name2'},
  "3": {id:3, name:'name3'},
  "4": {id:4, name:'name4')
}

Is it possible in Django Rest framework to send such object as Response ? Obviously there will not be too many keys so size should not be an issue.

Suryaveer Singh · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-31 08:36:11Z

3

You can modify the data before sending it to the client.

data = [
    {id:1, name:'name1'},
    {id:2, name:'name2'},
    {id:3, name:'name3'},
    {id:4, name:'name4'}
]

data = {key["id"]:value for value in data}
return JsonResponse(data)

Alternative If you are using serializer

If you are using serializer use to_representation to modify data while serializing it. It will have no performance impact on than the default representation.

class MySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = MyModal
        fields = ('foo', 'bar', .....,)

    def to_representation(self, instance):
        row = super(MySerializer, self).to_representation(instance)
        return {row["id"]:row}

edited Aug 31, 2020 at 8:36

answered Aug 29, 2020 at 19:30

Suryaveer Singh

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3 Comments

kenshin Over a year ago

How will that affect my perfomance in case the amount of the elements gets really big compared to default serializer data?

Suryaveer Singh Over a year ago

Good to know if you are using serializer, I have edited my answer for it. It won't impact performance.

kenshin Over a year ago

This currently returns an array which contains the desired Object at first index instead of basicaly returning the object on it's own. @Suryaveer Singh

TheBeast112 · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-31 23:43:57Z

The way I solved it was by overriding the list() method in your viewset:

class YourViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = YourModel.objects.all()
    serializer_class = YourSerializer

    def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):  # Override list method to list the data as a dictionary instead of array
        response = super(YourViewSet, self).list(request, *args, **kwargs)  # Call the original 'list'
        response_dict = {}
        for item in response.data:
            idKey = item['id']  # Use id as key
            response_dict[idKey] = item
        response.data = response_dict  # Customize response data into dictionary with id as keys instead of using array
        return response  # Return response with this custom representation

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