Django REST Framework filter backend

Question

I try to implement some basic filtering on my GenericAPIView, like this:

• view:

  class OperatorList(generics.GenericAPIView):
  
      permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticated, IsAdmin)
  
      filter_class = OperatorsFilter
      serializer_class = OperatorSerializer
  
      def get_queryset(self):
          queryset = self.request.user.operators.all()
  
      def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
          serializer = OperatorSerializer(instance=self.get_queryset(),
                                      many=True,
                                      context=self.get_serializer_context())
          return Response(serializer.data)
  

• serializer:

  class OperatorSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
      class Meta:
          model = Operator
          fields = ['id', 'name', 'created', ]
  

• filter set:

  import rest_framework_filters
  from rest_framework import filters
  from .models import Operator
  
  
  class OperatorFilter(filters.FilterSet):
  
      created = rest_framework_filters.DateTimeField(lookup_type='gte')
  
      class Meta:
          model = Operator
          fields = ('name', 'created', )
  

The issue is that filters are displayed in browsable API, but 'Created' is not a DateTimeWidget, but a simple input. Also, applying filter takes no effect, and I still have to catch request.query_params in get_queryset() (I ama trying to use filter backend to avoid this in first turn).

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Answer 1

The problem here is that you've subclassed GenericAPIView and then not (re-)implemented any of the handy logic that Django REST Framework provides in its concrete view class.

Instead you want to subclass ListAPIView which provides a get method implementing the filtering behaviour you're looking for.

The magic all resides in ListModelMixin which filters the queryset as needed...

class ListModelMixin(object):
    """
    List a queryset.
    """
    def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        queryset = self.filter_queryset(self.get_queryset())
        ... method continues ...

Your final view class should then look something like this:

class OperatorList(generics.ListAPIView):

    permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticated, IsAdmin)

    filter_class = OperatorsFilter
    serializer_class = OperatorSerializer

    def get_queryset(self):
        queryset = self.request.user.operators.all()

I hope that helps.