Skip to main content
Metadata classes determine what information is returned in response to OPTIONS requests.

​
BaseMetadata

Base class for all metadata implementations. 
from rest_framework.metadata import BaseMetadata

​
Methods

​
determine_metadata(request, view)

Return a dictionary of metadata about the view. Used to return responses for OPTIONS requests.
​
request
Request
required
The request instance
​
view
APIView
required
The view instance
Returns a dictionary of metadata.

​
SimpleMetadata

The default metadata implementation that returns an ad-hoc set of information about the view. 
from rest_framework.metadata import SimpleMetadata

class MyView(APIView):
    metadata_class = SimpleMetadata

​
Response Format

The OPTIONS response includes: 
{
    "name": "User List",
    "description": "List of all users in the system",
    "renders": [
        "application/json",
        "text/html"
    ],
    "parses": [
        "application/json",
        "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        "multipart/form-data"
    ],
    "actions": {
        "POST": {
            "username": {
                "type": "string",
                "required": true,
                "read_only": false,
                "label": "Username",
                "max_length": 100
            },
            "email": {
                "type": "email",
                "required": true,
                "read_only": false,
                "label": "Email address"
            }
        }
    }
}

​
Attributes

​
label_lookup
ClassLookupDict
Mapping of serializer field types to string labels. Used to determine the type value in field metadata

​
Methods

​
determine_metadata(request, view)

Return metadata including:
  • name - View name from view.get_view_name()
  • description - View description from view.get_view_description()
  • renders - List of media types the view can render
  • parses - List of media types the view can parse
  • actions - Field information for POST/PUT methods (if view has a serializer)

​
determine_actions(request, view)

Return field information for PUT and POST methods.
​
request
Request
required
The request instance
​
view
APIView
required
The view instance
Returns a dictionary with method names as keys and field info as values.

​
get_serializer_info(serializer)

Return a dictionary of metadata about the serializer’s fields.
​
serializer
Serializer
required
The serializer instance
Returns a dictionary mapping field names to field information.

​
get_field_info(field)

Return metadata for a single serializer field.
​
field
Field
required
The serializer field instance
Returns a dictionary with field information:
  • type - Field type string
  • required - Whether the field is required
  • read_only - Whether the field is read-only
  • label - Human-readable label
  • help_text - Help text for the field
  • min_length, max_length - Length constraints (if applicable)
  • min_value, max_value - Value constraints (if applicable)
  • choices - Available choices (if applicable)

​
Example: Custom Metadata

​
Add Custom Fields

from rest_framework.metadata import SimpleMetadata

class CustomMetadata(SimpleMetadata):
    def determine_metadata(self, request, view):
        metadata = super().determine_metadata(request, view)
        # Add custom fields
        metadata['custom_field'] = 'custom_value'
        metadata['api_version'] = '1.0.0'
        return metadata

class MyView(APIView):
    metadata_class = CustomMetadata

​
Global Configuration

# settings.py
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_METADATA_CLASS': 'myapp.metadata.CustomMetadata',
}

​
Minimal Metadata

from rest_framework.metadata import BaseMetadata

class MinimalMetadata(BaseMetadata):
    def determine_metadata(self, request, view):
        return {
            'name': view.get_view_name(),
        }

​
Testing OPTIONS Requests

from rest_framework.test import APIClient

client = APIClient()
response = client.options('/api/users/')
print(response.data)
# {
#     'name': 'User List',
#     'description': '...',
#     'renders': [...],
#     'parses': [...],
#     'actions': {...}
# }

​
Field Type Labels

The default label_lookup maps serializer fields to type labels:
Serializer FieldType Label
Field'field'
BooleanField'boolean'
CharField'string'
EmailField'email'
URLField'url'
IntegerField'integer'
FloatField'float'
DecimalField'decimal'
DateField'date'
DateTimeField'datetime'
TimeField'time'
ChoiceField'choice'
MultipleChoiceField'multiple choice'
FileField'file upload'
ImageField'image upload'
ListField'list'
DictField'nested object'
Serializer'nested object'

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us