How do I take input as String and save as Binary in Django using Django REST Framework?

Question

Here is my model:

class Example(models.Model):
    file = S3PrivateFileField()
    text = models.TextField(null=True, blank=True)
    binary = models.BinaryField(null=True, blank=True)

and here is the serializer:

class ExampleSerializer(ModelSerializer):

    class Meta:
        model = Example
        fields = ['file', 'text', 'binary']

First of all, in the Browsable API, I can see the file and text fields but not the binary fields. How do I see that field?

Secondly, the input data type for the binary field is string and I would like to save it as binary data in the database. How can I get it to work?

Greg Schmit · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-08 15:55:45Z

2

To convert a str to a byte string, encode it:

>>> s = 'hello'
>>> b = s.encode()  # default is UTF-8 encoding
>>> b
b'hello'

You probably cannot see the BinaryField in the UI because it has no default widget. In older versions of Django, BinaryFields weren't even editable, since they are generally used to store raw data, including characters not included in ASCII.

answered Oct 8, 2019 at 15:55

Greg Schmit

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3 Comments

Rafi Over a year ago

Thank you for your suggestion. For some reason, it did not work for me. string = self.request.data['binary'] self.request.data['binary'] = ''.join(format(i, 'b') for i in bytearray(string, encoding='utf-8')) This worked for the conversion but I am still getting an error while I am trying to save the data.

Greg Schmit Over a year ago

Yeah don't do that. You're making a string representation of binary data. That's bad, mmkay? Are you trying to have the user input literal 0s and 1s? That's not what a binary field is meant to be. You need to ask a new question and be real clear on what you actually want.

Rafi Over a year ago

Ok, I was able to save the data into the database using your original solution. You are right! Thanks!

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