The most straightforward and modern approach is using Django’s JSONField, which was introduced in Django 3.1.

This field type allows you to store Python dictionaries directly in your database while maintaining the ability to query them through Django’s ORM.

Here’s how to implement it in your model:


from django.db import models

class YourModel(models.Model):
    data = models.JSONField()
    
    def __str__(self):
        return f"Data entry {self.id}"

Working with the JSONField is intuitive – you can directly assign Python dictionaries when creating or updating model instances, and the field will handle all the serialization and deserialization automatically. When you retrieve the data, you’ll get back a Python dictionary that you can work with normally.

For older Django versions or specific use cases where JSONField isn’t suitable, you might consider using a TextField with JSON serialization, though this isn’t the recommended approach for new projects.

The JSONField approach provides better performance, native database support (especially in PostgreSQL), and the ability to query the JSON data directly through Django’s ORM.

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Last Update: 21/01/2025