Django Rest Framework - Create without providing a foreign key value

Question

I'm building my first API with Django-Rest-Framework and I'm a little stuck with the validation process. Hopefully this is an easy answer but I couldn't figure it out from the 6-part intro tutorial... I have a model: ``` class XYZMeta(models.Model): id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True) xyz_id = models.ForeignKey(XYZ) user_id = models.ForeignKey(User) field_name = models.CharField(blank=True, max_length=50) value = models.TextField(blank=True) ``` And a serializer: ``` class XYZMetaSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer): class Meta: model = XYZMeta fields = ('id', 'xyz_id', 'user_id', 'field_name', 'value') ``` And a view: ``` class XYZMetaViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet): """ API endpoint that allows xyz metadata to be viewed or edited. """ queryset = XYZMeta.objects.all() serializer_class = serializers.XYZMetaSerializer def perform_create(self, serializer): serializer.save(user_id=self.request.user) ``` When I send a POST to create a new object, it works great and uses the ID of th…

Accepted Answer

One approach: make `user_id` field non-required

```
class XYZMetaSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = XYZMeta
        fields = ('id', 'xyz_id', 'user_id', 'field_name', 'value')
        extra_kwargs = {
            'user_id': {'required': False}
        }
```

Another approach: alter `request.data` before the `get_serializer(data=request.data)` method call.

```
class XYZMetaViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    API endpoint that allows xyz metadata to be viewed or edited.
    """
    queryset = XYZMeta.objects.all()
    serializer_class = serializers.XYZMetaSerializer

def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        request.data['user_id'] = request.user.id
        return super(self.__class__, self).create(request, *args, **kwargs)
```

Django Rest Framework - Create without providing a foreign key value

Solution

Problem