Flatten nested serializer

Using Django Forms & APIs
1

Hello, I’m running into a problem un-nesting a nested serializer. Here’s an example:

class CitySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    city_name = serializers.CharField()
    top_school = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
    
    def get_top_school(self, obj):
        top_school = obj.top_school.get() #returns the top school for a given city
        return SchoolSerializer(top_school, read_only=True).data
    
    class Meta:
        model = City
        fields = (‘city_name’, ‘top_school’)

class SchoolSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    school_founded_date = serializers.DateField()
    school_location = serializers.CharField()
    school_name = serializers.CharField()
    
    class Meta:
        model = School
        fields = (‘school_founded_date’, ‘school_location’)

the output i’m trying to get is:

{
    ‘city_name’: ‘Boston’
    ‘school_founded_date’:’1957’
    ‘school_location’: ‘Fenway’
    ‘school_name’: ‘Boston Univeristy’
}

but what i’m getting is just:

{
    ‘city_name’:’Boston’
    ‘top_school’: None
}

if i change get_top_school in the CitySerializer to use obj.top_school.all() and return SchoolSerializer(top_school, read_only=True, many=True).data. It shows a nested object:

{
    ‘city_name’: ‘Boston’
    top_school: [{
        ‘school_founded_date’:’1957’
        ‘school_location’: ‘Fenway’
        ‘school_name’: ‘Boston Univeristy’
    }]
}

Is there a way to un-nest this?

2

I’m not aware of a solution in the way that you’re hoping for. You could achieve what you want by adding the three school fields to CitySerializer. Or create a TopSchoolCitySerializer that merges the two.