Adding root element to json response (django-rest-framework)

Question

I am trying to determine the best way to add a root element to all json responses using django and django-rest-framework.

I think adding a custom renderer is the bes

Answer 1

Credit to ever.wakeful for getting me 95% of the way there.

Personally, I wanted to add meta data to every api request for a certain object, regardless of whether or not it was paginated. I also wanted to simply pass in a dict object that I defined manually.

Tweaked Custom Renderer

class CustomJSONRenderer(renderers.JSONRenderer):
    def render(self, data, accepted_media_type=None, renderer_context=None):
        response_data = {}
        # Name the object list 
        object_list = 'results'
        try:
            meta_dict = getattr(renderer_context.get('view').get_serializer().Meta, 'meta_dict')
        except:
            meta_dict = dict()
        try:
            data.get('paginated_results')
            response_data['meta'] = data['meta']
            response_data[object_list] = data['results']
        except:
            response_data[object_list] = data
            response_data['meta'] = dict()
            # Add custom meta data
            response_data['meta'].update(meta_dict)
            # Call super to render the response
            response = super(CustomJSONRenderer, self).render(response_data, accepted_media_type, renderer_context)
        return response

Parent Serializer and View Example

class MovieListSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Movie
        meta_dict = dict()
        meta_dict['foo'] = 'bar'

class MovieViewSet(generics.ListAPIView):
    queryset = Movie.objects.exclude(image__exact = "")
    serializer_class = MovieListSerializer
    permission_classes = (IsAdminOrReadOnly,)
    renderer_classes = (CustomJSONRenderer,)
    pagination_serializer_class = CustomPaginationSerializer
    paginate_by = 10