Running example test from docs would not pass

I tried testing something very similar to the example from the API Guide. For convenience, I've copied the example below:

from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from rest_framework import status
from rest_framework.test import APITestCase

class AccountTests(APITestCase):
    def test_create_account(self):
        """
        Ensure we can create a new account object.
        """
        url = reverse('account-list')
        data = {'name': 'DabApps'}
        response = self.client.post(url, data, format='json')
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        self.assertEqual(response.data, data)

For my code, I kept getting a failing test due to response.data not being equal to data.

One issue is response.data having an id field, while data does not. Another issue is if there are any fields, even non-required ones, left empty in the post request, they will cause the two dictionaries to be unequal (unless you make sure to submit either empty strings or None).

Below is how I was able to get the test to pass. Notice manually setting id on data after the response comes back, and having to submit None or empty strings on non-required fields.

from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from rest_framework import status
from rest_framework.test import APITestCase

class AuthenticatedTestCase(APITestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        if len(User.objects.all()) == 0:
            staff_user = User(username='ra', is_staff=True)
            staff_user.set_password('1234')
            staff_user.save()
            self.client.force_authenticate(user=staff_user)

class EmployeeTests(AuthenticatedTestCase):
    def test_create_employee(self):
        """
        Ensure we can create a new employee object.
        """
        url = reverse('employee-list')
        data = {
            "user": 1,
            "first_name": "R",
            "last_name": "A",
            "primary_phone": "123-456-7890",
            "secondary_phone": "",
            "address_street": "Somewhere St.",
            "address_secondary": None,
            "city": "Some City",
            "state": "MI",
            "postal_code": "48439",
            "currently_employed": True
        }
        response = self.client.post(url, data, format='json')
        data['id'] = response.data['id']
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        self.assertEqual(response.data, data)

encode / django-rest-framework

Running example test from docs would not pass #3346