Make endpoint that returns a list of strings using Django Rest Framework

I have this Artist model:

class Artist(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    #songs = models.ManyToManyField('Song', related_name='artists')

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

    class Meta:
        ordering = ('name',)

I want to make a api endpoint that returns all the Artists row names as a list of string like for example: ["50 Cent", "Eminem", "Snoop Dogg", ...] . i have created this artists/names/ url in my urls.py:

path('artists/names/', views.artist_names, name='artist_names'),

I have tried two ways already:

1. Using a python list:

@api_view(['GET'])
def artist_names(request):
    artists = Artist.objects.values_list('name', flat=True)
    artist_names_list = list(artists)
    return Response(artist_names_list)

2. Using ListSerializer in my serializers.py:

class ArtistNameSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
    name = serializers.ListSerializer(child=serializers.CharField())

and in my views.py i created the artist_names method:

@api_view(['GET'])
def artist_names(request):
    artists = Artist.objects.values_list('name', flat=True)
    serializer = ArtistNameSerializer(artists, many=True)
    return Response(serializer.data)

From both of them when i go to the endpoint i get:

GET /api/artists/names/
HTTP 404 Not Found
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "detail": "Not found."
}

Can someone help? What am i doing wrong?

I imagine the issue you would have with your method (1) is that without 'serializing' first, your Python list is not valid JSON, so won't be handled correctly by DRF.

Your method (2) is on the right track, but you are using a serializers.ListSerializer inside your 'Serializer' class, where you should be putting a serializers.ListField. You also don't need many=True in your view once this is corrected.

The below is how I got your code working:

serializers.py

from rest_framework import serializers

from .models import Artist


class ArtistSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
    artists = Artist.objects.all()
    names = serializers.ListField(
        child=serializers.CharField(max_length=100),
        default=artists
    )

views.py

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework.response import Response

from .models import Artist
from .serializers import ArtistSerializer


@api_view(['GET'])
def artist_names(request):
    artists = Artist.objects.all()
    serializer = ArtistSerializer(artists)
    return Response(serializer.data)

urls.py (in app)

from django.urls import path

from . import views


urlpatterns = [
    path('artists/names/', views.artist_names, name='artist_names'),
]

The models.py file is identical to yours, and the project-level urls.py file features the line path('', include('app.urls')),, so just make sure to include that and change app to whatever name your app is.

The output this gave me is below:

Hopefully if you make the above adjustments (looks like they are mostly just the minor changes to your serializers and views files I outlined above) then you'll see the same output!