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

This worked for me. If we want to just add an additional field in ModelSerializer, we can do it like below, and also the field can be assigned some val after some calculations of lookup. Or in some cases, if we want to send the parameters in API response.

In model.py

class Foo(models.Model):
    """Model Foo"""
    name = models.CharField(max_length=30, help_text="Customer Name")

In serializer.py

class FooSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    retrieved_time = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
    
    @classmethod
    def get_retrieved_time(self, object):
        """getter method to add field retrieved_time"""
        return None

  class Meta:
        model = Foo
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'retrieved_time ')

Hope this could help someone.