Using Django Rest Framework to initiate data processing on the backend

Question

I have a fully functioning Django application and I am now adding an API using Django Rest Framework. I will creating a React front end which will use the API provided via DRF. I have worked out how to use DRF to create endpoints for my models using ModelViewSets and ModelSerializers. These work fine. I now need to create an endpoint that initiates some data processing. The endpoint will need to accept a date as input and then call some code to do the processing. My standard Django application currently does this by accepting a date via a Django form and then initiating a celery task.

Here is the view:

class GenerateRosterView(LoginRequiredMixin, FormView):
    """Generate Roster View."""

    template_name = "generate_roster.html"
    form_class = GenerateRosterForm

    def get_form_kwargs(self):
        """Pass request to form."""
        kwargs = super().get_form_kwargs()
        kwargs.update(request=self.request)
        return kwargs

    def get_success_url(self):
        """Get success URL."""
        return reverse("roster_generation_status", args=(self.task_id,))

    def form_valid(self, form):
        """Process generate roster form."""
        start_date = form.cleaned_data["start_date"]
        self.request.session["start_date"] = start_date.date().strftime(
        "%d-%b-%Y"
        )
        result = generate_roster.delay(start_date=start_date)
        self.task_id = result.task_id
        return super().form_valid(form)

Here is the form:

class GenerateRosterForm(forms.Form):
    """Generate Roster Form."""

    def __init__(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        """Get default start date from session."""
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        if "start_date" in request.session:
            start_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(
            request.session["start_date"], "%d-%b-%Y"
            )
        else:
            start_date = datetime.datetime.now()
        self.fields["start_date"] = forms.DateTimeField(
        widget=DateInput(), initial=start_date
        )

What would be the equivalent to this using Django Rest Framework? I want my front end to be able to post a date to the endpoint which will then call the code I have written (Celery task) to process the data in the database. The result of the processing is stored in the database.

Greg Cowell · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-03 04:26:25Z

2

I seem to have found a solution though perhaps not ideal.

Here is the view:

class GenerateRosterViewSet(viewsets.ViewSet):
    """GenerateRosterView."""

    def list(self, request):
        """Get page."""
        data = {"date": "required"}
        return Response(data, status=status.HTTP_200_OK)

    def create(self, request):
        """Generate roster with given start date."""
        serializer = DateTimeSerializer(data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            date = serializer.validated_data["date"]
            result = generate_roster.delay(start_date=date)
            data = {"task": result.task_id}
            return Response(data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

    def retrieve(self, request, pk=None):
        """Not used."""
        pass

    def update(self, request, pk=None):
        """Not used."""
        pass

    def partial_update(self, request, pk=None):
        """Not used."""
        pass

    def destroy(self, request, pk=None):
        """Not used."""
        pass

Here is the serializer:

class DateTimeSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
    """DateTime Serializer."""

    date = serializers.DateTimeField()

    def create(self, validated_data):
        """Create date."""
        return datetime(**validated_data)

    def update(self, instance, validated_data):
        """Update date."""
        instance.date = validated_data.get("date", instance.date)
        return instance

edited Nov 3, 2020 at 4:26

answered Nov 3, 2020 at 4:19

Greg Cowell

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1 Comment

Joseph Adam Over a year ago

I had a similiar question if you can please help stackoverflow.com/questions/69931199/…

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