Overwrite django rest response for return only pk

Question

I'm trying to overwrite the response that is sended by django when create a new object.

I need to return only the primary key of the created object instead the whole object.

The function that I'm trying to overwrite is this:

def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
    serializer = self.get_serializer(data=request.data)
    serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)
    self.perform_create(serializer)
    headers = self.get_success_headers(serializer.data)
    data = serializer.data
    print(data['id'])
    return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED, headers=headers)

Where the name of the field "id' inside the data object can be different by each entity.

The final code should be something like:

return Response(pk, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED, headers=headers)

Any idea about how can I make it work?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The data that a Response expects is a dict, so:

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

    return Response(
        {"pk": serializer.data["id"]},
        status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED,
        headers=headers,
    )

Alternatively:

Instead of using .perform_create, call .save directly. Catch the instance and use its .pk:

def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
    ...
    # self.perform_create(serializer)
    instance = serializer.save()
    return Response(
        {"pk": instance.pk},
        status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED,
        headers=headers,
    )