Django Rest Framework many related field - Javascript ajax - corret format for list of ints

Question

I have a serializer class using DRF:

class ItemSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    categories = serializers.PrimaryKeyRelatedField(many=True)

and I want to update the categories of an instance of the model via a RetrieveUpdateDestroyAPIView using this serializer via an ajax request.

var categories = [1,2,3];
$.ajax({
    url : "/api/items/id",
    type: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'X-HTTP-Method-Override': 'PUT'
    },      
    // Form data
    data : {
      'categories':categories
    }
});

Unfortuntely I cannot understand how to format the categories parameter. I tried as shown in the code above and the parameters are not passed to the serializer, the field categories in the serializer attributes is empty. In this case, the request parameter is a list but the name is categories[] and not categories

I also tried JSON.stringify(categories) but in this case the serializer do not validate with error: {"categories": ["Incorrect type. Expected pk value, received unicode."]} I figured out that in this case, the request parameter value is a string and not a list.

On the other hand, I am able to do the PUT request via the DRF browsable api and in this case the parameter is named categories and it's value is a list.

Do you know how should I send the parameter with ajax, i.e. send the param so that is is present in the request parameter as a list an with name categories?

Thank you very much!

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

So I found the answer in this question:

How to send a list of int with jQuery to ASP.net MVC Default Model Binder

The solution is to use the option traditional=true in the ajax call

var categories = [1,2,3];
$.ajax({
    url : "/api/items/id",
    type: 'POST',
    traditional:true,
    headers: {
        'X-HTTP-Method-Override': 'PUT'
    },      
    // Form data
    data : {
      'categories':categories
    }

then the parameters are transfered correctly as a list. });

Django Rest Framework many related field - Javascript ajax - corret format for list of ints

1 Answers1