Django receiving json post request from external source

Question

I have written a view function that processes a post request containing json data from a source outside of django (labview). I’m just testing it to begin with so it looks like this

def post_entry(request):
    '''Process incoming json string
    '''

    if request.method == 'POST':

        post_data = request.body

    # Return a response
    return HttpResponse('data received OK')

I’ve written a test to test this and it passes fine:

def test_post_entry_view_good_post_data(self):
    '''post_entry view should return a 200 status if valid
    '''

    data = {'DHTP Data': ['10', '50.296', '50.94', '50.418', '50.425', '50.431', '50.94'],
        'Test String': 'My Test String'}

    request_url = reverse('post_entry') 
    response = self.client.post(request_url, content_type='application/json', 
        data=dumps(data))

    # Should return a 200 response indicating ok
    self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)

But when labview posts the data post_entry returns a 403 forbidden error. I guess this is due to no csrf token being present, but why does the test pass in this case?

Asked By: DrBuck

||

Source

Answer 1

The test client works around the CSRF functionality. See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/csrf/#testing

Answered By: Chris Curvey

Answer 2

If you are going to have a view that accepts post data from a source external to your app you need to make your view exempt from CSRF protection by using csrf_exempt:

@csrf_exempt
def post_entry(request):
    '''Process incoming json string
    '''

If you are going to do this, you should use some other method of validating the request

Answered By: Iain Shelvington

Answer 3

If your view is supposed to accept POST from external sources it is upon you to validate the request as every POST request is required to have a CSRF token (Refer: CSRF). Hence, for your purpose, you’ll have to exempt the view from CSRF validation using @csrf_exempt decorator and write your own validation for the request using something like Token Authentication

Answered By: kreddyio

Answer 4

Use this line to get the decorator needed to bypass CSRF protection:

from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt

then put the @csrf_exempt decorator on the line before your function.

Answered By: Andy The Dishwasher

Django receiving json post request from external source

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