AllValuesMultipleFilter raises 404 error if any option does not exist

[palomapiot]

I have a search feature with on multiple fields (age, gender, location, etc.) and I'm using AllValuesMultipleFilter with lookup_expr contains to do the searches. The options among each field are acting like an OR, but among different fields, it is an AND, as expected.

My current problem is when I trigger a search and I pick a value (ex. age 12-20) which is NOT in any entity, instead of ignoring it and returning either nothing or the other matches (ex. if I also choose gender female, all entities where gender is female) I am getting a 404 error and my app is going to the 404 page.

Is there any way to solve this? Or should this be reported as a bug?

Profile filter set:

class ProfileFilterSet(filters.FilterSet):
    validated_data__age = filters.AllValuesMultipleFilter(
        field_name='validated_data__age',
        lookup_expr='contains'
    )
    validated_data__gender = filters.AllValuesMultipleFilter(
        field_name='validated_data__gender',
        lookup_expr='contains'
    )
    validated_data__location = filters.AllValuesMultipleFilter(
        field_name='validated_data__location',
        lookup_expr='contains'
    )

    class Meta:
        model = Profile
        fields = ['validated_data__age', 'validated_data__gender', 'validated_data__location', 'experiment_id']

Serializer:

class ProfileViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Profile.objects.all().order_by('experiment_id')
    serializer_class = ProfileSerializer
    permission_classes = [permissions.IsAuthenticated]
    filter_backends = [DjangoFilterBackend]

    filter_class = ProfileFilterSet

Model:

class Profile(models.Model):
    experiment_id = models.TextField(max_length=50)
    validated_data = models.ForeignKey(
        ProfileData, 
        on_delete=models.CASCADE,
        related_name='%(class)s_validated_data',
        blank=True,
        null=True
    )

class ProfileData(models.Model):

    class Age(models.TextChoices):
        ADOLESCENCE = '12-20', _('12-20')
        EARLY_ADULTHOOD = '20-30', _('20-30')
        MATURE_ADULTHOOD = '30-65', _('30-65')
        OLD_AGE = 'Over65', _('Over65')
        UNKNOWN = 'Unknown', _('Unknown')

    class Gender(models.TextChoices):
        MALE = 'Male', _('Male')
        FEMALE = 'Female', _('Female')
        UNKNOWN = 'Unknown', _('Unknown')

    age = models.TextField(
        choices=Age.choices,
        default=Age.UNKNOWN
    )
    gender = models.TextField(
        choices=Gender.choices,
        default=Gender.UNKNOWN
    )
    location = CountryField(blank_label='', blank=True, null=True)

    def __str__(self):
        """String for representing the Model object."""
        return '%s, %s, %s' % (self.age, self.gender, self.location)

Thank you.

[carltongibson]

Sounds as if you’re filtering to an empty QuerySet, and so DRF is (as expected) raising a 404 error? 🤔

[palomapiot]

The problem is, for example, if I select the filter age 12-20 and 20-30 and I don't have any users in the 12-20 age group, I get back a 404 Not Found Error. But I think the expected behaviour should be returning the users with age 20-30 or an empty list if there aren't any matches, but not raising the 404. Because then in my app, I get the redirection to the 404 page instead of having an empty list to show.

Maybe there is a way to solve this, but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it. Thank you so much for your reply.

[carltongibson]

Can you dig in and see exactly where the 404 is being raised? (I suspect it's in the DRF view... — that's OK, but it's hard to say what to adjust without the traceback. ) Thanks

[normic]

I stumbled about this today and had the same thought (404 or empty list). I think the 404 is correct here, as we are referring to data which is not in the pre-filtered list.

[normic]

In my case, the frontend is using data from an endpoint with all active user(ids).
But when selecting a user (for filtering) which has no entry in the data to be filtered, one get's the mentioned 404.

A look into the browsable API shows that we have a correct list with all possible and valid values.
In my opinion the correct way would be to use this pre-filtered list in the frontend as data for the filterable values.

Question: Is there a way to get the pre-filtered data into the view? Then the frontend could simply use this. I guess it's possible to do some magic with accessing the filterset_class, but is there a recommend way?

[carltongibson]

@normic I've read this several times and don't really understand exactly what you're asking. I'd suggest you start a fresh discussion and explain it afresh, rather than picking up a three year old conversation.

[normic]

Hi @carltongibson thanks for your reply.
I've just tried to put everything together in a hopefully more understandable way.
New thread is #1692