I’ve found myself unsatisfied with Django’s ability to render JSON data. If I use built in serializes then database foreign key relationships are not included in the data (only the keys). Also, it seems to be impossible to include custom data in the json feed that isn’t part of the model being serialized.
As a test I implemented a template that rendered some JSON for the resultset of a particular model. I was able to include/exclude whatever parts of the model I wanted and was able to include custom data as well.
The test seemed to work well and wasn’t slower than the recommended serialization methods.
Are there any pitfalls to this using this method of serialization?
While it’s hard to say definitively whether this method has any pitfalls, it’s the method we use in production as you control everything that is serialized, even if the underlying model is changed. We’ve been running a high traffic application in for almost two years using this method.
Hope this helps.