Configuring Custom Date Formats in Django Rest Framework

Based on your setup, there are a few things to consider when overriding date formats in Django, especially when working with Django Rest Framework.

Understanding the Issue

The DATE_INPUT_FORMATS setting affects how Django parses date inputs in forms, but Django Rest Framework (DRF) has its own serialization system that may not directly use these settings.

Solutions to Try

1. Make sure your formats module is correctly structured

Your format module structure looks good, but ensure that you're also defining DATE_FORMAT alongside DATE_INPUT_FORMATS:

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# api/formats/it/formats.py
DATE_FORMAT = '%d.%m.%Y'
DATE_INPUT_FORMATS = [
    '%d/%m/%y',
    '%d/%m/%Y',
    '%d.%m.%Y',
    '%d.%m.%y',
    '%Y-%m-%d',
    # etc
]

2. Verify your FORMAT_MODULE_PATH setting

Your current setting is:

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FORMAT_MODULE_PATH = ['api.formats',]

Make sure this is correctly pointing to your formats module. Django will look for locale-specific format definitions in this path.

3. For Django Rest Framework specifically

If you're using DRF serializers, you might need to configure the date format at the serializer level:

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from rest_framework import serializers

class YourSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    date_field = serializers.DateField(format='%d.%m.%Y', input_formats=['%d.%m.%Y', '%d/%m/%Y'])
    
    class Meta:
        model = YourModel
        fields = ['date_field', ...]

4. Configure REST_FRAMEWORK settings

You can also set default date formats for DRF in your settings.py:

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REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DATE_FORMAT': '%d.%m.%Y',
    'DATE_INPUT_FORMATS': ['%d.%m.%Y', '%d/%m/%Y', '%Y-%m-%d'],
}

5. Check for locale precedence

As mentioned in the documentation, locale-dictated formats have higher precedence. Make sure your Italian locale formats are correctly defined and loaded. You might need to check if the Italian locale is properly installed on your system.

6. Restart your server

After making these changes, make sure to restart your Django development server to ensure the new settings take effect.

If you're still experiencing issues after trying these solutions, you might need to look at how you're handling the date fields in your views or serializers, as there might be specific overrides happening there.