Django Rest Framework getting Bad Request:400 error with serializer errors that I thought I took care of but I can't figure out where I went wrong? - serialization

Question

I am trying to make a post request through insomnia to create a snake instance, but I am getting a Bad Request:400 error. I printed the serializer errors and got this:
{
'owner': [ErrorDetail(string='Incorrect type. Expected URL string, received ReturnDict.', code='incorrect_type')],
'birthday': [ErrorDetail(string='This field is required.', code='required')],
'date_aquired': [ErrorDetail(string='This field is required.', code='required')],
'species': [ErrorDetail(string='Incorrect type. Expected URL string, received ReturnDict.', code='incorrect_type')],
'breeder_id': [ErrorDetail(string='This field is required.', code='required')],
'mother': [ErrorDetail(string='This field is required.', code='required')],
'father': [ErrorDetail(string='This field is required.', code='required')]
}
Here is my serializer which I thought would take care of the null/blank fields:
class SnakeDetailSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
href = serializers.HyperlinkedIdentityField(view_name="api_species_detail")
birthday = serializers.DateField(allow_null=True)
date_aquired = serializers.DateField(allow_null=True)
enclosure_id = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
breeder_id = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
father = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
mother = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
class Meta:
model = Snake
fields = [
'href',
'id',
'owner',
'name',
'age',
'birthday',
'date_aquired',
'gender',
'status',
'weight',
'enclosure_id',
'species',
'is_cbb',
'is_imported',
'breeder_id',
'mother',
'father'
]
Here is my model:
class Snake(models.Model):
# BASIC INFO
owner = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,
related_name="collection",
on_delete=models.CASCADE
)
STATUS_CHOICES = (
('Active', 'Active'),
('Deceased', 'Deceased'),
('Quarantine', 'Quarantine'),
('For Sale', 'For Sale'),
('On Loan', 'On Loan'),
('Reserved', 'Reserved'),
('Sold', 'Sold')
)
GENDER_CHOICES = (
('M', 'Male'),
('F', 'Female'),
('NA', 'Unknown')
)
name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
age = models.SmallIntegerField()
birthday = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
date_aquired = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
status = models.CharField(max_length=10, choices=STATUS_CHOICES)
gender = models.CharField(max_length=2, choices=GENDER_CHOICES)
weight = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10, decimal_places=2)
enclosure_id = models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True, blank=True)
# SPECIES INFO
species = models.ForeignKey(SpeciesInfo, related_name="snakes", on_delete=models.PROTECT)
# LINEAGE INFO
is_cbb = models.BooleanField(default=False)
is_imported = models.BooleanField(default=False)
breeder_id = models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True, blank=True)
mother = models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True, blank=True)
father = models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True, blank=True)
here is my view:
#api_view(['GET', 'POST'])
def api_list_snakes(request):
if request.method == 'GET':
snakes = Snake.objects.all()
serializer = SnakeListSerializer(snakes, many=True)
return Response(
{'snakes': serializer.data}
)
else:
data = JSONParser().parse(request)
# print(data)
species = SpeciesInfo.objects.get(id=data["species"])
species_serialized = SpeciesInfoSerializer(species, context={'request':request})
owner = GetUserSerializer(request.user)
data['owner'] = owner.data
data["species"] = species_serialized.data
serializer = SnakeDetailSerializer(data=data, context={'request':request})
if serializer.is_valid():
serializer.save()
return Response(serializer.data, status=201)
print(serializer.errors)
return Response(serializer.data, status=400)
I have also added a photo of the insomnia request.insomnia_request
I thought adding the allow_null and allow_blank on the fields would correct the bad request error but it doesn't seem to have changed anything I am also getting errors for my foreign key fields and I am not sure why?
Help would be very much appreciated! Thanks!
I tried to add the fields that were allowed to be blank/null to the serializer here:
class SnakeDetailSerializer(serializers.HyperlinkedModelSerializer):
href = serializers.HyperlinkedIdentityField(view_name="api_species_detail")
birthday = serializers.DateField(allow_null=True)
date_aquired = serializers.DateField(allow_null=True)
enclosure_id = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
breeder_id = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
father = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
mother = serializers.CharField(allow_null=True, allow_blank=True)
and I expected that to correct the errors saying that they were required fields but they did not.
I also thought I had corrected the Foreign Key issues but it says they are expected a url string? I was using the id and it is getting the correct one so I'm not sure why it is mad about it

Answer 1

I figured out how to fix my required field error. I had to add required=True to the serializer fields but I still can't get the foreign keys to work