DateField and DateTimeField should take empty string "" as null

[curoa]

I using DatePicker from '@mui/x-date-pickers'.
Because html input can't handle null,
so DatePicker sends empty string if date value is null.
However DRF raise Error as empty string is not suit for format for DateField and DateTimeField.

I think it is useful that DateField and DateTimeField can take empty string as null.
Some people think too.
ref. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46871046/post-empty-date-field-error-with-django-rest-framework

I created my ModelSerializer so that you don't have to specify the field name every time.

from rest_framework import serializers

class ModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):

    def to_internal_value(self, data):
        for field_name, value in data.items():
            if not field_name in self.fields:
                continue
            field_object = self.fields[field_name]
            if all([
                value == "",
                field_object.allow_null,
                any([
                    isinstance(field_object, serializers.DateField),
                    isinstance(field_object, serializers.DateTimeField),
                ]),
            ]):
                data[field_name] = None
        return super().to_internal_value(data)

[browniebroke]

At first glance, that sounds like a reasonable change to me, but I worry/wonder about why it was done this way in the first place. Can't the front-end library do some mapping there where empty is always sent as null? Or is it because the request content type is form-data and not JSON?

I created my ModelSerializer so that you don't have to specify the field name every time.

You may get a smaller/more targeted patch by creating a custom DateField + DateTimeField and optionally updating the ModelSerializer.serializer_field_mapping.