Setting to Return Brief API Responses by Default #3471

New Issue

adam · 2025-12-29T18:29:23+01:00

adam commented

2025-12-29 18:29:23 +01:00

Originally created by @dstarner on GitHub (Mar 12, 2020).

Environment

Python version: 3.7
NetBox version: 2.7.10

Proposed Functionality

Implement a setting such as REST_FRAMEWORK['DEFAULT_TO_BRIEF_RESPONSE'] (or something named better that would default list/get endpoints to return the brief response (no config_context to details other than ID, name, slug).

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_TO_BRIEF_RESPONSE': [True|False]
}

If this setting is False, then default to doing it as it happens now...Return the detailed response by default and pass brief=true for brevity.

If this setting is True, then default to returning the brief contents of the data and the caller must pass detail=True to get the full details.

Use Case

In many of our use cases, API callers just want to get a list of all known devices but don't need all of the detail that adds expensive overhead to compute. And due to brief and exclude not being in the Swagger documentation (see #4356) this means that a naive Swagger client is now sitting for a long period of time as unneeded data is computed. It would be nice to default to the brief view and have the client explicitly ask for the detailed view, as this fits most of our use cases.

Database Changes

None

External Dependencies

None

Originally created by @dstarner on GitHub (Mar 12, 2020).  ### Environment * Python version: 3.7 * NetBox version: 2.7.10  ### Proposed Functionality Implement a setting such as `REST_FRAMEWORK['DEFAULT_TO_BRIEF_RESPONSE']` (or something named better that would default list/get endpoints to return the brief response (no config_context to details other than ID, name, slug). ```python REST_FRAMEWORK = { 'DEFAULT_TO_BRIEF_RESPONSE': [True|False] } ``` If this setting is `False`, then default to doing it as it happens now...Return the detailed response by default and pass `brief=true` for brevity. If this setting is `True`, then default to returning the brief contents of the data and the caller must pass `detail=True` to get the full details.  ### Use Case In many of our use cases, API callers just want to get a list of all known devices but don't need all of the detail that adds expensive overhead to compute. And due to `brief` and `exclude` not being in the Swagger documentation (see #4356) this means that a naive Swagger client is now sitting for a long period of time as unneeded data is computed. It would be nice to default to the brief view and have the client explicitly ask for the detailed view, as this fits most of our use cases.  ### Database Changes None  ### External Dependencies None

adam closed this issue

2025-12-29 18:29:23 +01:00

adam commented

2025-12-29 18:29:23 +01:00

@jeremystretch commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2020):

One of the core tenets of an API is to be consistent, and this would lead to inconsistency. Given that the client already has the option of passing brief as a request parameter, I do not see value in this.

@jeremystretch commented on GitHub (Mar 12, 2020): One of the core tenets of an API is to be consistent, and this would lead to inconsistency. Given that the client already has the option of passing `brief` as a request parameter, I do not see value in this.

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Reference: starred/netbox#3471