QuerySetRequestMixin - Why can request can be None ?

[yaakovLowenstein]

In QuerySetRequestMixin the function to get the request is:

    def get_request(self):
        try:
            return self.parent.request
        except AttributeError:
            return None

I was curios, in what scenario can the request ever actually not be there? Why not raise an error instead?

Allowing the field to be None introduces confusion. If you access the field before super().init is called in the FilterSet (where the request gets assigned), the field’s queryset will default to the full queryset. That happens because at that point the request is still None. Since None is allowed, it silently falls back to returning the full queryset.

This can be misleading and error-prone. It would be safer if the field simply didn’t allow access to its queryset when no request is available. That way, you can’t accidentally work with the unfiltered queryset.