Allow JsonResponse to automatically serialize querysets.

[dopatraman]

I find the JsonResponse interface to be a bit clunky. I'd like to be able to do something like this:

    return JsonResponse({"posts": list(Post.objects.all())})

For context, here is my code:

# models.py
class BaseModel(models.Model):
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True


class User(AbstractUser):
    username = models.CharField(max_length=255, unique=True)
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True, null=False)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)


class Post(BaseModel):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    content_url = models.URLField(null=False)

#############

# views.py
def get_all_posts(request):
    return JsonResponse({"posts": list(Post.objects.all())})

return JsonResponse({"posts": list(Post.objects.all())})

But this produces a JSON serialization error. The "proper" way is apparently to serialize and deserialize the object manually, which in itself is not adequate because the process separates the values of the model instance from its primary key (detailed here: ​https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56012024/why-doesnt-jsonresponse-automatically-serialize-my-django-model/56016542#56016542)

Can we improve JsonResponse so that it automatically serializes responses?

[Mariusz Felisiak]

Thanks for the report, however JsonResponse is a HttpResponse subclass that helps to create a JSON-encoded response. IMO it cannot be responsible for data serialization. For converting complex data into Python datatypes we need a complex solution like DRF serializers.