Creating UTF-8 JsonResponse in Django - json

Question

Is there any simple way to override DjangoJSONEncoder.ensure_ascii and set it to False or output non-ascii text in django.http.JsonResponse in any other way?

Answer 1

As of Django 1.9 you can configure JSONResponse to disable the ensure_ascii switch, by passing in a value for the json_dumps_params argument:
return JsonResponse(response_data, safe=False, json_dumps_params={'ensure_ascii': False})
With ensure_ascii=False, json.dumps() outputs UTF-8 data for non-ASCII codepoints.
You could subclass JsonResponse to make it the default unless set differently:
from django.http.response import JsonResponse
class UTF8JsonResponse(JsonResponse):
def __init__(self, *args, json_dumps_params=None, **kwargs):
json_dumps_params = {"ensure_ascii": False, **(json_dumps_params or {})}
super().__init__(*args, json_dumps_params=json_dumps_params, **kwargs)
then use that throughout instead of JsonResponse.
At the extreme end, you could monkey-patch the class to set ensure_ascii to False by default; put the following in a suitable module of your Django app (say, in a file named patches.py):
import logging
from functools import wraps
from django.http.response import JsonResponse
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
def patch_jsonresponse_disable_ensure_ascii():
if getattr(JsonResponse, '_utf8_patched', False):
# Already patched. Add warning in logs with stack to see what location
# is trying to patch this a second time.
logger.warning("JSONResponse UTF8 patch already applied", stack_info=True)
return
logger.debug("Patching JSONResponse to disable ensure_ascii")
orig_init = JsonResponse.__init__
#wraps(orig_init)
def utf8_init(self, *args, json_dumps_params=None, **kwargs):
json_dumps_params = {"ensure_ascii": False, **(json_dumps_params or {})}
orig_init(self, *args, json_dumps_params=json_dumps_params, **kwargs)
JsonResponse.__init__ = utf8_init
JsonResponse._utf8_patched = True # to prevent accidental re-patching
then import patch_jsonresponse_disable_ensure_ascii into your Django settings file and call it based on your desired config:
from yourapp.patches import patch_jsonresponse_disable_ensure_ascii
JSON_RESPONSES_UTF8 = True
if JSON_RESPONSES_UTF8:
patch_jsonresponse_disable_ensure_ascii()

Answer 2

EDIT:
Or if you tend to the utf-8 format, use instead of Django's JsonResponse():
return HttpResponse(json.dumps(response_data, ensure_ascii=False),
content_type="application/json")
or
return JsonResponse(json.dumps(response_data, ensure_ascii=False), safe=False)
more about the safe=False HERE
OLD:
You don't have to whatever alter.
Although Django creates JSON data in ASCII (from UTF-8), Javascript will automatically decode it back to UTF-8.

Answer 3

from django.core.serializers.json import DjangoJSONEncoder
from django.http import JsonResponse
class MyJsonResponse(JsonResponse):
def __init__(self, data, encoder=DjangoJSONEncoder, safe=True, **kwargs):
json_dumps_params = dict(ensure_ascii=False)
super().__init__(data, encoder, safe, json_dumps_params, **kwargs)

Answer 4

I didn't find any better way yet than to utilize an already installed REST Framework:
from rest_framework.decorators import api_view, permission_classes
from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly
from rest_framework.response import Response
from .models import INITIATOR_TYPES
#api_view(['GET'])
#permission_classes((IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly, ))
def initiator_types(request):
data = {t[0]: str(t[1]) for t in INITIATOR_TYPES}
return Response(data)
But I don't really like it. It's much more complicated than JsonResponse: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24411716/854477