Serializing with django rest framework

Question

I have the model named Artist and I want expose this model with Django Rest Framework to create an API and this data can be consumed.

I've created a class based view in artists/views.py named ArtistViewSet

#CBV for rest frameworks
from rest_framework import viewsets

class ArtistViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    model = Artist

I also have an url named api/ in the urls.py file (view third url named api/) which the user could access to the view above mentioned.

# coding=utf-8
from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.conf import settings
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

from rest_framework import routers
from artists.views import ArtistViewSet

#I create a router by default
router = routers.DefaultRouter()

#Register the model 'artists' in ArtistViewSet 
router.register(r'artists', ArtistViewSet)

urlpatterns = patterns('',

    (r'^grappelli/', include('grappelli.urls')), # grappelli URLS
    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),

    #Include url api/ with all urls of router
    url(r'^api/', include(routers.urls)),

)

When I go to my browser and type http://localhost:8000/api/ I get this message error:

enter image description here

What did can be happened me?

You need to specify base_name. Read Routers. It specifically mentions the error you got. — Sam R.
@norbertpy thanks. I cannot understand the rol of base_name. I mean, this base name is the url that I've created? My viewset ArtistViewSet do not have an queryset attribute, due to this, according to documentation, it's necesary put the base_name argument, but i don't know how to do it. Excuse me for the newbie question. — bgarcial

Kevin Brown Kevin Brown · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-11T19:47:53

In Django REST framework 2.4+ (including 3.0+), the model attribute for views has been deprecated and removed. This means that you should be defining your view as

from rest_framework import viewsets

class ArtistViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Artist.objects.all()

Which should give you the result you are expecting. Now, you asked in the comments

I cannot understand the role of base_name. I mean, this base name is the url that I've created? My viewset ArtistViewSet does not have a queryset attribute, due to this, according to documentation, it's necessary put the base_name argument, but i don't know how to do it.

The base_name that can be optionally defined when registering a ViewSet is used when naming the automatically generated routes. By default, the format is [base]-list and [base]-detail, where [base] is the base_name that can be defined. When you do not specify your own base_name, it is automatically generated based on the model name. As the queryset method must be defined for ViewSet instances, this is where the model (and later model name) is retrieved. As you did not provide the queryset argument, Django REST framework triggers an error because it cannot generate a base_name.

To quote from the documentation on routers

Note: The base_name argument is used to specify the initial part of the view name pattern.

The documentation goes on to further explain exactly why you are getting the issue, even including an example, and how to fix it.

Serializing with django rest framework

1 Answers