How can I clear an image with DRF?

[Eric Palmitesta]

Hello, all!

I've posted my question to StackOverflow but the two responses there don't seem to resolve me issue.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48676365/how-can-i-clear-an-image-with-django-rest-framework

class Part(models.Model):
    image = models.ImageField(null=True, blank=True)

class PartSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = Part
        fields = ('id', 'image')

class PartDetail(generics.RetrieveUpdateAPIView):
    queryset = Part.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PartSerializer
    parser_classes = (MultiPartParser, FormParser)

# put image, works fine
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix='.jpg') as fp:
    image = Image.new('RGB', (100, 200))
    image.save(fp)
    fp.seek(0)
    data = {'image': fp}
    self.client.put('/path/to/endpoint', data, format='multipart')

# clear image, attempt #1
data = {'image': None}
self.client.put('/path/to/endpoint', data, format='multipart')
# AssertionError: {'image': ['The submitted data was not a file. Check the encoding type on the form.']}

# clear image, attempt #2
data = {'image': ''}
self.client.put('/path/to/endpoint', data, format='multipart')
# AssertionError: <ImageFieldFile: None> is not None

Using Django 1.11 and DRF 3.7, I'm sending a PUT to clear an image on a model by setting it to None, or empty-string, and getting back an error either way.  What's the "correct" way to clear an image from a model using DRF?

[Eric Palmitesta]

Figured it out.  If I delete the image in perform_update before calling serializer.save(), then passing in {'image': ''} via PUT works fine:

class PartDetail(generics.RetrieveUpdateAPIView):
    queryset = Part.objects.all()
    serializer_class = PartSerializer
    parser_classes = (MultiPartParser, FormParser

)
    
    def perform_update(self, serializer):
        part = Part.objects.get(pk=self.kwargs['pk'])
        part.image.delete()
        serializer.save()