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djangodjango-querysetdjango-managers

Django: use JSONField properties in filter and search

I'm trying to create a custom filter and search in a Django list view that would use the values stored within a JSONField, just as if they were defined as regular model fields.

I think I need to define a model Manager with a custom get_queryset() function, but I'm not sure how to "dehydrate" the json data and return it as part of the queryset.

Some other approaches have failed so far: I can insert values to the context dict in a custom ListView, but that context cannot be queried. Also tried defining attributes in admin.py and wrapping some @property definitions in models.py; encountering the same problem here because the properties cannot be queried.

Any suggestions?

Solution

  • You can't do that (in a normal RDBMS, anyway).

    Filters are evaluated by the database, which knows nothing of the fields within the JSON: it's just an opaque blob. If you need to search on those fields, you'll need to store them as proper db-accessible data.