[FIXED] Should I use GET or POST to retrieve results Django

Issue

I'm using Django and have a view to get/insert some records in database. Here's my code:

class JSONResponse(HttpResponse):
"""
An HttpResponse that renders its content into JSON.
"""
def __init__(self, data, **kwargs):
    content = JSONRenderer().render(data)
    kwargs['content_type'] = 'application/json'
    super(JSONResponse, self).__init__(content, **kwargs)

@api_view(('GET','POST'))
@renderer_classes((TemplateHTMLRenderer,))
@csrf_exempt
def cours_list(request):

    if request.method == 'GET':
       data = JSONParser().parse(request)
       results = Lesson.objects.get(discipline=data.discipline)
       return Response({'cours': results}, template_name='search_results.html')

    elif request.method == 'POST':
       data = JSONParser().parse(request)
       serializer = LessonSerializer(data=data)
       if serializer.is_valid():
           serializer.save()
           return JSONResponse(serializer.data, status=201)
       return JSONResponse(serializer.errors, status=400)

So to get data I use GET and to insert a new record I use POST. First, is this the right way to do ? I read once that it't a bad idea to use GET whatever the situation. Also, the GET code is not actually working (I'm getting a bad request error) and it seems that this is comming from JSONParser that is not able to parse the request.

Edit1

Here is the request that is sent:

GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/cours/?{%22discipline%22:%22Mathematiques%22,%22localisation%22:%22%22}

Edit2

I tried to print requet.GET, and this what it gives:

<QueryDict: {'{"discipline":"Mathematiques","localisation":""}': ['']}>

When trying to access request.data['discipline'], it says:

django.utils.datastructures.MultiValueDictKeyError: "'discipline'"

Solution

Should I use GET or POST to retrieve results Django

To retrieve use a GET

I read once that it't a bad idea to use GET whatever the situation

Not at all, as long as your GET operation contains no side effects (e.g. in your GET method you are only reading from the database.

The GET code is not actually working (I'm getting a bad request error)

  data2 = JSONParser().parse(request) # you used data2
  results = Lesson.objects.get(discipline=data.discipline) # and you used data
                                          ^
                                          |____ data? data2?

You're not passing the GET parameters correctly

You need to pass GET params like this url/?param1=value1 To read that value you use param1 = request.GET['param1'] and param1 will be the string value1

What you are doing isn't passing a value:

GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/cours/?{%22discipline%22:%22Mathematiques%22,%22localisation%22:%22%22}

That's why you get an empty value ['']

<QueryDict: {'{"discipline":"Mathematiques","localisation":""}': ['']}>

You can pass the entire data as a JSON string if you want, but I prefer to break it down like this:

url/?discipline=Mathematiques&localisation=Quelquechose

with

discipline = request.GET['discipline']
localisation = request.GET['localisation']

Answered By - bakkal