How to make an attribute read-only in serializers in DRF?

I have a serializer.

class MySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = models.MyClass

My model class is:

class MyClass(models.Model):
    employee = models.ForeignKey("Employee", on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    work_done = models.TextField(blank=True, null=True)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)

I want employee attribute to be read-only and should only show this value in it's field:

employee = Employee.objects.get(user=self.request.user)

How can I do this in serializers?

extra_kwargs = {
            'employee': {'read_only': True}
       }

You can make it read-only by mentioning it on the serializer, and show the current user's value by modifying the init method in the following way :

class MySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
    model = models.MyClass
    read_only_fields = [
        'employee',
    ]

def get_employee(self, instance) -> Any:
    employee = None
    request = self.context.get('request')
    if request and hasattr(request, 'user'):
        employee = Employee.objects.get(request.user)

    # if you want to show serialize value of employee
    # then write a EmployeeSerializer and add following blocked code 

    # if employee:
    #     serializer = EmployeeSerializer(user, many=False)
    #     employee = serializer.data
    return employee
Back to Top