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Using Django Rest Framework to Handle Nested Serializers with Recursive Relationships

👀 Views: 441 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-11
django django-rest-framework serializers Python

I'm stuck trying to I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple. I'm currently working on a Django project using Django Rest Framework (DRF) 3.12 where I'm trying to serialize a model that has a self-referential foreign key relationship. The model looks something like this: ```python class Category(models.Model): name = models.CharField(max_length=100) parent = models.ForeignKey('self', on_delete=models.SET_NULL, null=True, blank=True, related_name='children') ``` I want to create a serializer that returns the category along with its children, but when I try to do this using a nested serializer, it results in a recursion behavior. Here's what I have so far: ```python class CategorySerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer): children = CategorySerializer(many=True, read_only=True) class Meta: model = Category fields = ['id', 'name', 'parent', 'children'] ``` When I make a request to the endpoint, I get the following behavior: ``` RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while serializing a model instance ``` I tried to limit the depth using the `depth` option in the serializer, setting it to 1, but that didn't solve the scenario. I also considered using the `SerializerMethodField` to control the output, but I am unsure how to implement it correctly for this scenario. I’ve seen examples of handling similar cases, but they usually involve different structures. Can someone provide guidance on how to correctly implement nested serializers for a self-referential model in Django Rest Framework without running into recursion issues? My team is using Python for this REST API. The stack includes Python and several other technologies. Cheers for any assistance! Thanks, I really appreciate it!