This code is related to the django rest framework project (https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework). It's an implementation of the suggestion of Alan Plum in this google groups discussion (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/django-rest-framework/XRHdi8ddXiw) to have different representations of list and detail views…

mixins.py

from django.http import Http404
from rest_framework.mixins import ListModelMixin
from rest_framework.response import Response

class ShortListModelMixin(ListModelMixin):
    """
    Extends ListModelMixin,
    allowing the specification of the list_fields arguments for the .list() method
    different fields can be shown for list and detail views
    """

    def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        queryset = self.get_queryset()
        self.object_list = self.filter_queryset(queryset)

        # Default is to allow empty querysets.  This can be altered by setting
        # `.allow_empty = False`, to raise 404 errors on empty querysets.
        allow_empty = self.get_allow_empty()
        if not allow_empty and not self.object_list:
            class_name = self.__class__.__name__
            error_msg = self.empty_error % {'class_name': class_name}
            raise Http404(error_msg)

        # Pagination size is set by the `.paginate_by` attribute,
        # which may be `None` to disable pagination.
        page_size = self.get_paginate_by(self.object_list)
        if page_size:
            packed = self.paginate_queryset(self.object_list, page_size)
            paginator, page, queryset, is_paginated = packed
            serializer = self.get_pagination_serializer(page)
        else:
            serializer = self.get_serializer(self.object_list)

        if 'list_fields' in kwargs and len(kwargs['list_fields']):
            serializer.data['results'] = [dict((k,v) for k, v in i.iteritems() if k in kwargs['list_fields']) for i in serializer.data['results']]

        return Response(serializer.data)

views.py

class SnippetList(ShortListModelMixin, generics.ListCreateAPIView):
    """
    List of available snippets
    """
    model = Snippet
    serializer_class = SnippetSerializer
    permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly, )
    list_fields = ('url', 'title', 'owner', 'highlight')

    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.list(request, *args, list_fields=self.list_fields, **kwargs)

    def pre_save(self, obj):
        obj.owner = self.request.user

Your implementation seems sound enough but I don't really understand the approach you are taking with respect to your list_fields attribute.

I would probably write your code a little differently and just define your mixin like this:

class ShortListModelMixin(ListModelMixin):
  """
  Extends ListModelMixin,
  allowing the specification of the list_fields arguments for the .list() method
  different fields can be shown for list and detail views
  """

  def list(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
    #Use your attribute self.list_fields here rather than pass it in as a kwarg
    # Mixin code here ....

class SnippetList(ShortListModelMixin, generics.ListCreateAPIView):
    #no need to define any methods here unless desired
    #just define list_fields and any other normal attributes you may desire

On line 35 I get a can't set property error. I ended doing the same thing, but in the Serializer class. I then override the data property and rebuild the dict based on a list_fields parameter which I'm now passing to the Serializer.

How about this approach -> https://gist.github.com/IlianIliev/6462502