# Django: Create a JSON Response with JsonResponse

> Return a JSON response from a Django view using JsonResponse, including how to serialize arrays with safe=False and avoid double-escaped quotes

**URL:** https://sentry.io/answers/creating-a-json-response-using-django-and-python/

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## The Problem

You want to pass a JSON response from your Django backend to use with AJAX or a frontend web framework.

## The Solution

Django (since version 1.7) provides a `JsonResponse` object which converts a Python dictionary into JSON. It also works with other Python data structures, such as arrays, but if you're using anything that's not a dictionary you need to explicitly set `safe=False`. In this case, you should also be careful that your application isn't ever going to return more or different data to the frontend than you expect.

In your `views.py` file, you can return JSON as demonstrated in the following code. The first view uses a simple dictionary, while the second one returns an array, so we set `safe=False`. 

```python
from django.http import JsonResponse

def index(request):
    my_dictionary = {"a": 1, "b": 2}
    return JsonResponse(my_dictionary)

def index2(request):
    my_array = [("a", 1), ("b", 2)]
    return JsonResponse(my_array, safe=False)
```

The `index` function above will return `{"a": 1, "b": 2}` while `index2` will return `[["a", 1], ["b", 2]]` (note the round brackets are converted to square brackets to conform with standard JSON).

### Serialization and escaping

If you use `JsonResponse` to return an entire object, Django will escape the double quotation marks in all fields. For example, if you have the following object:

```python
from django.core import serializers
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django.db import models

class MyTrickyObject(models.Model):
    quotes = models.CharField(max_length=100)

def index(request):
    MyTrickyObject.objects.all().delete()
    all_objs = MyTrickyObject.objects.all()
    tricky_obj = MyTrickyObject(quotes='"this is a quoted string"')
    tricky_obj.save()
    tricky_objects = MyTrickyObject.objects.all()
    data = serializers.serialize('json', all_objs)
    return JsonResponse(data, safe=False)
```

Then the response will be:

```
"[{\"model\": \"sandboxapp.mytrickyobject\", \"pk\": 21, \"fields\": {\"quotes\": \"\\\"this is a quoted string\\\"\"}}]"
```

Note how every field includes the (escaped) double quotes, and the actual quotes in the `quotes` field are now double escaped. Instead, you can use an `HttpResponse` and `content_type='application/json'` to get just the fields without the quotes:

```python
from django.core import serializers
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.db import models

class MyTrickyObject(models.Model):
    quotes = models.CharField(max_length=100)

def index(request):
    MyTrickyObject.objects.all().delete()
    all_objs = MyTrickyObject.objects.all()
    tricky_obj = MyTrickyObject(quotes='"this is a quoted string"')
    tricky_obj.save()
    tricky_objects = MyTrickyObject.objects.all()
    data = serializers.serialize('json', all_objs)
    return HttpResponse(data, content_type='application/json')
```

Now the response will be:

```
[{"model": "sandboxapp.mytrickyobject", "pk": 22, "fields": {"quotes": "\"this is a quoted string\""}}]
```

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*Source: [sentry.io/answers/creating-a-json-response-using-django-and-python/](https://sentry.io/answers/creating-a-json-response-using-django-and-python/)*