Inflection (Attribute Key Transformation)¶

By default, attribute keys in JSON:API responses match the Python field names on your Pydantic schema (e.g. first_name). You can configure django-ninja-jsonapi to automatically transform keys to dasherized or camelCase form.

Configuration¶

Add INFLECTION to your NINJA_JSONAPI settings:

NINJA_JSONAPI = {
    "INFLECTION": "dasherize",  # or "camelize", or None (default)
}

How it works¶

When inflection is enabled:

1. Outgoing responses — attribute keys are transformed before serialisation, so first_name appears as first-name or firstName in the JSON document.
2. Sparse fieldsets — fields[customer]=first-name is accepted and mapped back to the underlying first_name field.
3. Schema aliases — dynamically built Pydantic models get an alias_generator so model_dump(by_alias=True) produces transformed keys automatically.

Example¶

Schema:

class CustomerSchema(BaseModel):
    id: int
    first_name: str
    last_name: str

With "INFLECTION": "dasherize":

{
  "data": {
    "type": "customer",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
      "first-name": "Alice",
      "last-name": "Smith"
    }
  }
}

Manual use¶

The inflection functions are available for direct use in custom code:

from django_ninja_jsonapi.inflection import dasherize, camelize, underscore

dasherize("first_name")   # "first-name"
camelize("first_name")    # "firstName"
underscore("first-name")  # "first_name"
underscore("firstName")   # "first_name"