Set up serializer fields lazily on-demand.

This avoids AppRegistryNotReady problems in Django 1.7 with nested serializers,
which are instantiated at import time, possibly before Django's app registry is
fully populated.

Author: carljm

rest_framework/serializers.py

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 from django.forms import widgets
 from django.utils import six
 from django.utils.datastructures import SortedDict
+from django.utils.functional import cached_property
 from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist
 from rest_framework.settings import api_settings
 
@@ -197,7 +198,6 @@ def __init__(self, instance=None, data=None, files=None,
         self.init_data = data
         self.init_files = files
         self.object = instance
-        self.fields = self.get_fields()
 
         self._data = None
         self._files = None
@@ -212,6 +212,10 @@ def __init__(self, instance=None, data=None, files=None,
     #####
     # Methods to determine which fields to use when (de)serializing objects.
 
+    @cached_property
+    def fields(self):
+        return self.get_fields()
+
     def get_default_fields(self):
         """
         Return the complete set of default fields for the object, as a dict.

tests/conftest.py

@@ -82,6 +82,11 @@ def pytest_configure():
             'guardian',
         )
 
+    # Import and instantiate a model serializer before django.setup() has been
+    # called, to ensure that model serializers don't eagerly configure fields.
+    from .serializers import ModelSerializerWithFields
+    ModelSerializerWithFields()
+
     try:
         import django
         django.setup()

tests/serializers.py

@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 from rest_framework import serializers
-from tests.models import NullableForeignKeySource
+from tests.models import NullableForeignKeySource, BasicModel
 
 
 class NullableFKSourceSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
     class Meta:
         model = NullableForeignKeySource
+
+
+class ModelSerializerWithFields(serializers.ModelSerializer):
+    class Meta:
+        model = BasicModel
+        fields = ['text']

tests/test_relations.py

@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ class ClassWithQuerysetMethod(object):
         self.assertEqual(value, ['BlogPost object'])
 
     # Regression for #1129
-    def test_exception_for_incorect_fk(self):
+    def test_exception_for_incorrect_fk(self):
         """
         Check that the exception message are correct if the source field
         doesn't exist.
@@ -123,8 +123,9 @@ class Meta:
             (serializers.ModelSerializer,),
             attrs
         )
+        serializer = TestSerializer(data={'name': 'foo'})
         with self.assertRaises(AttributeError):
-            TestSerializer(data={'name': 'foo'})
+            serializer.fields
 
 
 @unittest.skipIf(get_version() < '1.6.0', 'Upstream behaviour changed in v1.6')

tests/test_serializer.py

@@ -327,7 +327,9 @@ def test_invalid_read_only_fields(self):
         """
         Regression test for #652.
         """
-        self.assertRaises(AssertionError, PersonSerializerInvalidReadOnly, [])
+        serializer = PersonSerializerInvalidReadOnly()
+        with self.assertRaises(AssertionError):
+            serializer.fields
 
     def test_serializer_data_is_cleared_on_save(self):
         """