Django REST Framework: adding additional field to ModelSerializer

Question

I want to serialize a model, but want to include an additional field that requires doing some database lookups on the model instance to be serialized:

class          


        

Answer 1

You can change your model method to property and use it in serializer with this approach.

class Foo(models.Model):
    . . .
    @property
    def my_field(self):
        return stuff
    . . .

class FooSerializer(ModelSerializer):
    my_field = serializers.ReadOnlyField(source='my_field')

    class Meta:
        model = Foo
        fields = ('my_field',)

Edit: With recent versions of rest framework (I tried 3.3.3), you don't need to change to property. Model method will just work fine.