JSON:API Adapter Support

[bemky]

Django's Rest Framework's JSON:API has different capabilities. Add or modify Viking to enable easier extension for different apis

Routes

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
List	✅		GET /models	GET /models/
Calculate	❌	unsupported	supported	no support
Detail	✅		GET /models/{id}	GET /models/{id}/
Create	✅		POST /models	POST /models/
Update	⚠️	PUT vs PATCH	PUT /models/{id}	PATCH /models/{id}/
Delete	✅		DELETE /models/{id}	DELETE /models/{id}/
Resource Names	⚠️	stringify difference	/my_users	/my-users

Nested / relationship routes

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Create association	❌	unsupported	POST /owners/{id}/children	unsupported
Add association	⚠️	body shape difference and route difference	POST /owners/{id}/children/{child_id}	POST /articles/{id}/relationships/children
Remove association	⚠️	body shape difference and route difference	DELETE /owners/{id}/children/{child_id}	DELETE /articles/{id}/relationships/children

DRF route and body shape
POST /api/users/abc-123/relationships/teams

{
    "data": [
      { "type": "teams", "id": "t3" }
    ]
}

Query parameters

Operation	Match	Viking	JSON:API
Filtering	⚠️	?where[field]=value	?filter[field]=value
Sorting	⚠️	?order[asc]=field	?sort=-field
Pagination	⚠️	?limit=10&offset=0	?page[number]=1&page[size]=10
Includes	⚠️	?include[]=author&include[]=comments	?include=author,comments

• Need furter investigation into query string parsing, may need DRF adapter for viking style where[]= and where[user][name][gt]=

Request Bodies

Create (POST)

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Envelope	⚠️	resource_name vs data wrapper	{ "user": { attrs } }	{ "data": { "type", "attributes", "relationships" } }
Attributes	✅	Flat key-value	{ "name": "Ben" }	{ "attributes": { "name": "Ben" } }
Relationships	⚠️	Inline nested vs resource identifiers	{ "team": { "id": 5, "name": "Alpha" } }	{ "relationships": { "team": { "data": { "type": "teams", "id": "5" } } } }

Update (PUT/PATCH)

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Envelope	⚠️	resource_name vs data wrapper	{ "model": { "name": "Updated" } }	{ "data": { "type", "id", "attributes": { "name": "Updated" } } }
Partial update	✅	Dirty tracking / PATCH semantics	Changed attrs only	Changed attrs only
Type + ID in body	⚠️	Not required vs required	Not included	Must include type and id

Associations in requests

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Inline nested create/update	❌	Full object vs {type, id} only	{ "phase": { "id": 11, "name": "Jerry" } }	{ "phase": { "data": { "type": "phases", "id": "11" } } }

Verdict: Fundamental difference. Viking sends full nested attribute data for associations (autosave). JSON:API only sends {type, id} linkages — you cannot create/update related records inline. Related records must be created via their own endpoints first.

---

Response Bodies

Single record

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Envelope	⚠️	Flat object vs data wrapper	{ "id": 1, "name": "Ben", ... }	{ "data": { "type", "id", "attributes", "relationships" } }
Attributes	⚠️	Flat vs nested under attributes	{ "name": "Ben" }	{ "attributes": { "name": "Ben" } }
Related records	⚠️	Inline nesting vs sideloaded included	{ "team": { "id": 5, "name": "Alpha" } }	"included": [{ "type": "teams", "id": "5", "attributes": { "name": "Alpha" } }]

Collection

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Envelope	⚠️	Raw array vs data wrapper	[{ "id": 1 }, { "id": 2 }]	{ "data": [...], "links": {}, "meta": {} }
Related records	⚠️	Inline nesting vs sideloaded included	[{ "id": 5, "teams": [{"id": 21}]}, { "id": 5, "teams": [{"id": 27}]}]	"data": [{ "id": 5, "relationships": {"teams": [{"id": 21}]}}, { "id": 5, "relationships": {"teams": [{"id": 27}]}}] "included": [{"id": 21}, {"id": 27}]

Delete

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Response	✅	HTTP 204, no body	204 null	204 no body

Errors

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Envelope	⚠️	Both use top-level errors key	{ "errors": { ... } }	{ "errors": [ ... ] }
Structure	❌	Flat object vs array of error objects	{ "name": "can't be blank" }	[{ "status": "422", "source": { "pointer": "/data/attributes/name" }, "detail": "..." }]

---

Headers

Operation	Match	Summary	Viking	JSON:API
Accept	⚠️	application/json vs vnd.api+json	application/json	application/vnd.api+json
Content-Type	⚠️	application/json vs vnd.api+json	application/json	application/vnd.api+json
CSRF Token	⚠️	Meta tag vs cookie	X-CSRF-Token from meta tag	Typically via cookie (DRF default)

Verdict: Headers differ. JSON:API requires the application/vnd.api+json media type. The new csrfToken() hook and constructor headers option can handle this.