I want my api to return Account objects grouped by the account_type field in the model. I want to do this so that the grouped accounts are easier to access in my JS code. This is what is returned now:

[{"id": 6,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Credit Card 1","account_type": "credit card","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:44.288654Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:44.288842Z"
}, {"id": 11,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 1","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:22.122226Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:22.122283Z"
}, {"id": 5,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Checking 1","account_type": "checking","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:28.580268Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:28.580305Z"
}, {"id": 9,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 2","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:59:57.156837Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:59:57.156875Z"
}, {"id": 10,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 3","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:12.873799Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:12.873846Z"
}, {"id": 7,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Credit Card 2","account_type": "credit card","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:55.921586Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:55.921613Z"
}]

And I'd like it to return something like this:

{"credit card": [{   "id": 6,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Credit Card 1","account_type": "credit card","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:44.288654Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:44.288842Z"},{"id": 7,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Credit Card 2","account_type": "credit card","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:55.921586Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:55.921613Z"}  ],"savings": [{"id": 11,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 1","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:22.122226Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:22.122283Z"},{"id": 9,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 2","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:59:57.156837Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:59:57.156875Z"},{"id": 10,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Savings 3","account_type": "savings","created_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:12.873799Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T03:00:12.873846Z"}],"checking": [{"id": 5,"owner": 1,"account_name": "Checking 1","account_type": "checking","created_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:28.580268Z","modified_time": "2019-07-18T02:57:28.580305Z"}]
}

Model:

class Account(models.Model):CHECKING = 'checking'CREDIT_CARD = 'credit card'SAVINGS = 'savings'ACCOUNT_TYPE_CHOICES = [(CHECKING, 'Checking'),(CREDIT_CARD, 'Credit Card'),(SAVINGS, 'Savings'),]owner = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,on_delete=models.CASCADE)account_name = models.CharField(max_length=128,null=False)account_type = models.CharField(max_length=128,null=False,choices=ACCOUNT_TYPE_CHOICES)created_time = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)modified_time = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)

Serializer:

class AccountSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):class Meta:model = Accountfields = ('id','owner','account_name','account_type','created_time','modified_time')def create(self, validated_data):account = Account.objects.create(**validated_data)return account

Edit: Adding my views.py because I'm curious if that's the issue.

class AccountViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):queryset = Account.objects.all().order_by('account_name')# serializer_class = AccountSerializerserializer_class = AccountByTypeSerializerdef list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):page = self.paginate_queryset(self.queryset)if page is not None:serializer = self.get_serializer(page, many=True)return self.get_paginated_response(serializer.data)def retrieve(self, request, pk, *args, **kwargs):instance = self.get_object()serializer = self.get_serializer(instance)return Response(serializer.data)def create(self, request, *args, **kwargs):serializer = self.get_serializer(data=request.data)serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)self.perform_create(serializer)headers = self.get_success_headers(serializer.data)return Response(serializer.data,status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED,headers=headers)def update(self, request, *args, **kwargs):# partial = kwargs.pop('partial', False)instance = self.get_object()serializer = self.get_serializer(instance,data=request.data,partial=True)serializer.is_valid(raise_exception=True)self.perform_update(serializer)return Response(serializer.data)

Since you have only a limited amount of account type choices, you can use SerializerMethodFields, like this:

class AccountByTypeSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):checking = serializers.SerializerMethodField()savings = serializers.SerializerMethodField()credit_card = serializers.SerializerMethodField()def _build_account_list(account_type):accounts = Account.objects.filter(account_type=account_type)serializer = AccountSerializer(accounts, many=True)return serializer.datadef get_savings(self, obj):return self._build_account_list(Account.SAVINGS)...class Meta:model = Accountfields = ('checking', 'savings', 'credit_card')

I suggest you to use credit_card instead of credit card, but if you really need to use the latter, just override to_representation.