How can I convert instance to dictionary with model method and relationship?

Question

Below is the implementation of model class 'Customer'

class Customer(models.Model): 
    uuid = models.UUIDField(primary_key=True, default=uuid.uuid4, editable=False)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50,,null=True,blank=True)
    birthdate = models.DateField(max_length=100,null=True,blank=True)
    status = models.ForeignKey('status ',on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    something = models.ManyToManyField('Something',blank=True)


    def get_age(self):
        diff = relativedelta(datetime.date.today(),self.birthdate )
        return diff

I want to convert the django model class instance to a dictionary, somewhat like -

{
  uuid : "value",
  name : "value",
  birthdate = "value",
  status = {
      status_id : "value"
      status_text : "value"
  },
  something : [{
       something_id : "value",
       something_value : "value"
  },{
       something_id : "value",
       something_value : "value"
  }],
get_age : "value"
}

thanks!

[This](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21925671/convert-django-model-object-to-dict-with-all-of-the-fields-intact) might be useful — JPG, Dec 24 '21 at 01:37

Oleksii Tambovtsev · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-24T01:13:37.737

The short answer

You should use serializers, in your case the best option is ModelSerializer.

The long answer

Firstly, you should add @property decorator to get_age function (I renamed it for age):

@property
def age(self):
    diff = relativedelta(datetime.date.today(),self.birthdate )
    return diff

Then create serializers:

class StatusSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Status
        fields = ['status_id', 'status_value']

class SomethingSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Something
        fields = ['something_id', 'something_value']

class CustomerSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    status = StatusSerializer()
    something = SomethingSerializer(many=True)
    class Meta:
        model = Customer
        fields = ['uuid', 'name', 'birthdate', 'status', 'something', 'age']

And then you use serializer to convert your model instance to dict:

customer_dict = CustomerSerializer(customer_model).data

How can I convert instance to dictionary with model method and relationship?

1 Answers1

The short answer

The long answer