Question

I’m writing an API server using Django 1.4.2 and Tastypie 0.9.11.

For all the datetime output, I’m using the default iso 8601 format, for example: “2012-11-20T02:48:19+00:00”. But I want to get a “2012-11-20T02:48:19Z” format. How to do it easily without customizing each datetime field?

Answer 1

Formatting a date is probably best done in the templates. However, Tastypie allows you to add or modify fields returned by the API using the dehydrate cycle. For example:

# models.py
class MyModel(models.Model):
    iso8601_date = models.DateTimeField()

    class Meta:
        verbose_name = 'my_model'

# api.py
class MyResource(ModelResource):
    class Meta:
        queryset = MyModel.objects.all()

    def dehydrate(self, bundle):
        # Your original field: bundle.data['iso8601_date']

        # Newly formatted field.
        bundle.data['new_date_format'] = '2012-11-20T02:48:19Z'
        return bundle

Now, if you make the HTTP request, you should see a new line for “new_date_format”.