I am using Django Rest Framework and AngularJs to upload a file. My view file looks like this:

class ProductList(APIView):
    authentication_classes = (authentication.TokenAuthentication,)
    def get(self,request):
        if request.user.is_authenticated(): 
            userCompanyId = request.user.get_profile().companyId
            products = Product.objects.filter(company = userCompanyId)
            serializer = ProductSerializer(products,many=True)
            return Response(serializer.data)

    def post(self,request):
        serializer = ProductSerializer(data=request.DATA, files=request.FILES)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(data=request.DATA)

As the last line of post method should return all the data, I have several questions:

• how to check if there is anything in request.FILES?
• how to serialize file field?
• how should I use parser?

Use the FileUploadParser, it’s all in the request. Use a put method instead, you’ll find an example in the docs :)

class FileUploadView(views.APIView):
    parser_classes = (FileUploadParser,)

    def put(self, request, filename, format=None):
        file_obj = request.FILES['file']
        # do some stuff with uploaded file
        return Response(status=204)

I’m using the same stack and was also looking for an example of file upload, but my case is simpler since I use the ModelViewSet instead of APIView. The key turned out to be the pre_save hook. I ended up using it together with the angular-file-upload module like so:

# Django
class ExperimentViewSet(ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Experiment.objects.all()
    serializer_class = ExperimentSerializer

    def pre_save(self, obj):
        obj.samplesheet = self.request.FILES.get('file')

class Experiment(Model):
    notes = TextField(blank=True)
    samplesheet = FileField(blank=True, default='')
    user = ForeignKey(User, related_name='experiments')

class ExperimentSerializer(ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Experiment
        fields = ('id', 'notes', 'samplesheet', 'user')

// AngularJS
controller('UploadExperimentCtrl', function($scope, $upload) {
    $scope.submit = function(files, exp) {
        $upload.upload({
            url: '/api/experiments/' + exp.id + '/',
            method: 'PUT',
            data: {user: exp.user.id},
            file: files[0]
        });
    };
});

Finally I am able to upload image using Django. Here is my working code

views.py

class FileUploadView(APIView):
    parser_classes = (FileUploadParser, )

    def post(self, request, format='jpg'):
        up_file = request.FILES['file']
        destination = open('/Users/Username/' + up_file.name, 'wb+')
        for chunk in up_file.chunks():
            destination.write(chunk)
        destination.close()  # File should be closed only after all chuns are added

        # ...
        # do some stuff with uploaded file
        # ...
        return Response(up_file.name, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)

urls.py

urlpatterns = patterns('', 
url(r'^imageUpload', views.FileUploadView.as_view())

curl request to upload

curl -X POST -S -H -u "admin:password" -F "file=@img.jpg;type=image/jpg" 127.0.0.1:8000/resourceurl/imageUpload

After spending 1 day on this, I figured out that …

For someone who needs to upload a file and send some data, there is no straight fwd way you can get it to work. There is an open issue in json api specs for this. One possibility i have seen is to use multipart/related as shown here, but i think its very hard to implement it in drf.

Finally what i had implemented was to send the request as formdata. You would send each file as file and all other data as text. Now for sending the data as text you have two choices. case 1) you can send each data as key value pair or case 2) you can have a single key called data and send the whole json as string in value.

The first method would work out of the box if you have simple fields, but will be a issue if you have nested serializes. The multipart parser wont be able to parse the nested fields.

Below i am providing the implementation for both the cases

Models.py

class Posts(models.Model):
    id = models.UUIDField(default=uuid.uuid4, primary_key=True, editable=False)
    caption = models.TextField(max_length=1000)
    media = models.ImageField(blank=True, default="", upload_to="posts/")
    tags = models.ManyToManyField('Tags', related_name='posts')

serializers.py -> no special changes needed, not showing my serializer here as its too lengthy because of the writable ManyToMany Field implimentation.

views.py

class PostsViewset(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    serializer_class = PostsSerializer
    #parser_classes = (MultipartJsonParser, parsers.JSONParser) use this if you have simple key value pair as data with no nested serializers
    #parser_classes = (parsers.MultipartParser, parsers.JSONParser) use this if you want to parse json in the key value pair data sent
    queryset = Posts.objects.all()
    lookup_field = 'id'

Now, if you are following the first method and is only sending non-Json data as key value pairs, you don’t need a custom parser class. DRF’d MultipartParser will do the job. But for the second case or if you have nested serializers (like i have shown) you will need custom parser as shown below.

utils.py

from django.http import QueryDict
import json
from rest_framework import parsers

class MultipartJsonParser(parsers.MultiPartParser):

    def parse(self, stream, media_type=None, parser_context=None):
        result = super().parse(
            stream,
            media_type=media_type,
            parser_context=parser_context
        )
        data = {}

        # for case1 with nested serializers
        # parse each field with json
        for key, value in result.data.items():
            if type(value) != str:
                data[key] = value
                continue
            if '{' in value or "[" in value:
                try:
                    data[key] = json.loads(value)
                except ValueError:
                    data[key] = value
            else:
                data[key] = value

        # for case 2
        # find the data field and parse it
        data = json.loads(result.data["data"])

        qdict = QueryDict('', mutable=True)
        qdict.update(data)
        return parsers.DataAndFiles(qdict, result.files)

This serializer would basically parse any json content in the values.

The request example in post man for both cases: case 1 ,

Case 2

I solved this problem with ModelViewSet and ModelSerializer. Hope this will help community.

I also preffer to have validation and Object->JSON (and vice-versa) login in serializer itself rather than in views.

Lets understand it by example.

Say, I want to create FileUploader API. Where it will be storing fields like id, file_path, file_name, size, owner etc in database. See sample model below:

class FileUploader(models.Model):
    file = models.FileField()
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100) #name is filename without extension
    version = models.IntegerField(default=0)
    upload_date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True, db_index=True)
    owner = models.ForeignKey('auth.User', related_name='uploaded_files')
    size = models.IntegerField(default=0)

Now, For APIs this is what I want:

1. GET:

When I fire the GET endpoint, I want all above fields for every uploaded file.

2. POST:

But for user to create/upload file, why she has to worry about passing all these fields. She can just upload the file and then, I suppose, serializer can get rest of the fields from uploaded FILE.

Searilizer: Question: I created below serializer to serve my purpose. But not sure if its the right way to implement it.

class FileUploaderSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    # overwrite = serializers.BooleanField()
    class Meta:
        model = FileUploader
        fields = ('file','name','version','upload_date', 'size')
        read_only_fields = ('name','version','owner','upload_date', 'size')

   def validate(self, validated_data):
        validated_data['owner'] = self.context['request'].user
        validated_data['name'] = os.path.splitext(validated_data['file'].name)[0]
        validated_data['size'] = validated_data['file'].size
        #other validation logic
        return validated_data

    def create(self, validated_data):
        return FileUploader.objects.create(**validated_data)

Viewset for reference:

class FileUploaderViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    serializer_class = FileUploaderSerializer
    parser_classes = (MultiPartParser, FormParser,)

    # overriding default query set
    queryset = LayerFile.objects.all()

    def get_queryset(self, *args, **kwargs):
        qs = super(FileUploaderViewSet, self).get_queryset(*args, **kwargs)
        qs = qs.filter(owner=self.request.user)
        return qs

From my experience, you don’t need to do anything particular about file fields, you just tell it to make use of the file field:

from rest_framework import routers, serializers, viewsets

class Photo(django.db.models.Model):
    file = django.db.models.ImageField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.file.name

class PhotoSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = models.Photo
        fields = ('id', 'file')   # <-- HERE

class PhotoViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = models.Photo.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PhotoSerializer

router = routers.DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'photos', PhotoViewSet)

api_urlpatterns = ([
    url('', include(router.urls)),
], 'api')
urlpatterns += [
    url(r'^api/', include(api_urlpatterns)),
]

and you’re ready to upload files:

curl -sS http://example.com/api/photos/ -F 'file=@/path/to/file'

Add -F field=value for each extra field your model has. And don’t forget to add authentication.

If anyone interested in the easiest example with ModelViewset for Django Rest Framework.

The Model is,

class MyModel(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(db_column='name', max_length=200, blank=False, null=False, unique=True)
    imageUrl = models.FileField(db_column='image_url', blank=True, null=True, upload_to='images/')

    class Meta:
        managed = True
        db_table = 'MyModel'

The Serializer,

class MyModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = MyModel
        fields = "__all__"

And the View is,

class MyModelView(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = MyModel.objects.all()
    serializer_class = MyModelSerializer

Test in Postman,

In django-rest-framework request data is parsed by the Parsers.
http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/parsers/

By default django-rest-framework takes parser class JSONParser. It will parse the data into json. so, files will not be parsed with it.
If we want files to be parsed along with other data we should use one of the below parser classes.

FormParser
MultiPartParser
FileUploadParser

    from rest_framework import status
    from rest_framework.response import Response
    class FileUpload(APIView):
         def put(request):
             try:
                file = request.FILES['filename']
                #now upload to s3 bucket or your media file
             except Exception as e:
                   print e
                   return Response(status, 
                           status.HTTP_500_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
             return Response(status, status.HTTP_200_OK)

def post(self,request):
        serializer = ProductSerializer(data=request.DATA, files=request.FILES)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(serializer.data)

I’d like to write another option that I feel is cleaner and easier to maintain. We’ll be using the defaultRouter to add CRUD urls for our viewset and we’ll add one more fixed url specifying the uploader view within the same viewset.

**** views.py 

from rest_framework import viewsets, serializers
from rest_framework.decorators import action, parser_classes
from rest_framework.parsers import JSONParser, MultiPartParser
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework_csv.parsers import CSVParser
from posts.models import Post
from posts.serializers import PostSerializer     


class PostsViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):

    queryset = Post.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PostSerializer 
    parser_classes = (JSONParser, MultiPartParser, CSVParser)


    @action(detail=False, methods=['put'], name='Uploader View', parser_classes=[CSVParser],)
    def uploader(self, request, filename, format=None):
        # Parsed data will be returned within the request object by accessing 'data' attr  
        _data = request.data

        return Response(status=204)

Project’s main urls.py

**** urls.py 

from rest_framework import routers
from posts.views import PostsViewSet


router = routers.DefaultRouter()
router.register(r'posts', PostsViewSet)

urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^posts/uploader/(?P<filename>[^/]+)$', PostsViewSet.as_view({'put': 'uploader'}), name='posts_uploader')
    url(r'^', include(router.urls), name='root-api'),
    url('admin/', admin.site.urls),
]

.- README.

The magic happens when we add @action decorator to our class method ‘uploader’. By specifying “methods=[‘put’]” argument, we are only allowing PUT requests; perfect for file uploading.

I also added the argument “parser_classes” to show you can select the parser that will parse your content. I added CSVParser from the rest_framework_csv package, to demonstrate how we can accept only certain type of files if this functionality is required, in my case I’m only accepting “Content-Type: text/csv”. Note: If you’re adding custom Parsers, you’ll need to specify them in parsers_classes in the ViewSet due the request will compare the allowed media_type with main (class) parsers before accessing the uploader method parsers.

Now we need to tell Django how to go to this method and where can be implemented in our urls. That’s when we add the fixed url (Simple purposes). This Url will take a “filename” argument that will be passed in the method later on. We need to pass this method “uploader”, specifying the http protocol (‘PUT’) in a list to the PostsViewSet.as_view method.

When we land in the following url

 http://example.com/posts/uploader/ 

it will expect a PUT request with headers specifying “Content-Type” and Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”something.csv”.

curl -v -u user:pass http://example.com/posts/uploader/ --upload-file ./something.csv --header "Content-type:text/csv"

This is the one of the approach I’ve applied hopefully it’ll help.

     class Model_File_update(APIView):
         parser_classes = (MultiPartParser, FormParser)
         permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]  # it will check if the user is authenticated or not
         authentication_classes = [JSONWebTokenAuthentication]  # it will authenticate the person by JSON web token

         def put(self, request):
            id = request.GET.get('id')
            obj = Model.objects.get(id=id)
            serializer = Model_Upload_Serializer(obj, data=request.data)
            if serializer.is_valid():
               serializer.save()
               return Response(serializer.data, status=200)
            else:
               return Response(serializer.errors, status=400)

You can generalize @Nithin’s answer to work directly with DRF’s existing serializer system by generating a parser class to parse specific fields which are then fed directly into the standard DRF serializers:

from django.http import QueryDict
import json
from rest_framework import parsers


def gen_MultipartJsonParser(json_fields):
    class MultipartJsonParser(parsers.MultiPartParser):

        def parse(self, stream, media_type=None, parser_context=None):
            result = super().parse(
                stream,
                media_type=media_type,
                parser_context=parser_context
            )
            data = {}
            # find the data field and parse it
            qdict = QueryDict('', mutable=True)
            for json_field in json_fields:
                json_data = result.data.get(json_field, None)
                if not json_data:
                    continue
                data = json.loads(json_data)
                if type(data) == list:
                    for d in data:
                        qdict.update({json_field: d})
                else:
                    qdict.update({json_field: data})

            return parsers.DataAndFiles(qdict, result.files)

    return MultipartJsonParser

This is used like:

class MyFileViewSet(ModelViewSet):
    parser_classes = [gen_MultipartJsonParser(['tags', 'permissions'])]
    #                                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    #                              Fields that need to be further JSON parsed
    ....

If you are using ModelViewSet, well actually you are done! It handles every things for you! You just need to put the field in your ModelSerializer and set content-type=multipart/form-data; in your client.

BUT as you know you can not send files in json format. (when content-type is set to application/json in your client). Unless you use Base64 format.

So you have two choices:

• let ModelViewSet and ModelSerializer handle the job and send the request using content-type=multipart/form-data;
• set the field in ModelSerializer as Base64ImageField (or) Base64FileField and tell your client to encode the file to Base64 and set the content-type=application/json

models.py

from django.db import models

import uuid

class File(models.Model):
    id = models.UUIDField(primary_key=True, default=uuid.uuid4, editable=False)
    file = models.FileField(blank=False, null=False)
    
    def __str__(self):
        return self.file.name

serializers.py

from rest_framework import serializers
from .models import File

class FileSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = File
        fields = "__all__"

views.py

from django.shortcuts import render
from rest_framework.parsers import FileUploadParser
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework import status

from .serializers import FileSerializer


class FileUploadView(APIView):
    permission_classes = []
    parser_class = (FileUploadParser,)

    def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):

      file_serializer = FileSerializer(data=request.data)

      if file_serializer.is_valid():
          file_serializer.save()
          return Response(file_serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
      else:
          return Response(file_serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

urls.py

from apps.files import views as FileViews

urlpatterns = [
    path('api/files', FileViews.FileUploadView.as_view()),
]

settings.py

# file uload parameters
MEDIA_URL =  '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')

Send a post request to api/files with a your file attached to a form-data field file. The file will be uploaded to /media folder and a db record will be added with id and file name.