[Solved]-Django REST Framework different depth for POST/PUT?

I know this is a little bit late but I ended up using 2 serializers like so:

class CommentReadSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Comment
        depth = 2

class CommentWriteSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Comment

Then used like this:

class Comments(generics.ListCreateAPIView):

    model = Comment
    serializer_class = CommentReadSerializer

    def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        serializer = CommentWriteSerializer(data=request.DATA, files=request.FILES)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            self.pre_save(serializer.object)
            self.object = serializer.save(force_insert=True)
            self.post_save(self.object, created=True)
            headers = self.get_success_headers(serializer.data)
            serializer = CommentReadSerializer(serializer.object)
            return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED, headers=headers)

        return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

You can set different serializers by overriding the get_serializer_class() function, like so:

def get_serializer_class(self):
method = self.request.method
if method == 'PUT' or method == 'POST':
return YourWriteSerializer
else:
return YourReadSerializer

I thought to add this one, since i came here from Googling after a while.

I believe the proper way to define a serializer field that refers to a foreign key relationship is through something like serializers.PrimaryKeyRelatedField. I don’t believe that model serializers automatically use this field class without defining it explicitly in the serializer class.

http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/relations/#primarykeyrelatedfield

I would imagine that a PrimaryKeyRelatedField serializer would correctly handle JSON data submissions like the one you used in your example.

I had the same problem so I Solved making custom generic methods.This is better implementation of above answers

class CustomListCreateAPIView(mixins.ListModelMixin,
                              mixins.CreateModelMixin,
                              generics.GenericAPIView):
    """
    Concrete view for listing a queryset or creating a model instance.
    """
    def get_serializer_class(self):
        method = self.request.method
        if method == 'PUT' or method == 'POST':
            return self.writeSerializers
        else:
            return self.readSerializers

    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.list(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.create(request, *args, **kwargs)

Similarily RUD,

class CustomRetrieveUpdateDestroyAPIView(mixins.RetrieveModelMixin,
                                         mixins.UpdateModelMixin,
                                         mixins.DestroyModelMixin,
                                         generics.GenericAPIView):
    """
    Concrete view for retrieving, updating or deleting a model instance.
    """
    def get_serializer_class(self):
        method = self.request.method
        if method == 'PUT' or method == 'POST':
            return self.writeSerializers
        else:
            return self.readSerializers

    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.retrieve(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def put(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.update(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def patch(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.partial_update(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def delete(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.destroy(request, *args, **kwargs)  # enter code here

Now I just give writeSerializers and readSerializers values in Views.py

Also to create Read-write Serializers there is an easy way.

class employeeWriteSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = employee
        fields = ('username','email',..)
        
class employeeReadSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
     class Meta(employeeWriteSerializer.Meta):
         depth = 1

It saves time and repetitive work you can also add authentication classes in custom generic Api(Retitve work). Thanks.