How to serialize db.Model objects to json?

Question

When using

from django.utils import simplejson

on objects of types that derive from db.Model it throws exceptions. How to circ

Answer 1

The example provided by Jader Dias works fine for my concern after some twaeking. Remove the encode method as it contains a circular reference. The adjusted class should look like:

import datetime  
import time 

from google.appengine.api import users 
from google.appengine.ext import db 
from django.utils import simplejson  


class GqlEncoder(simplejson.JSONEncoder): 

    """Extends JSONEncoder to add support for GQL results and properties. 

    Adds support to simplejson JSONEncoders for GQL results and properties by 
    overriding JSONEncoder's default method. 
    """ 

    # TODO Improve coverage for all of App Engine's Property types. 

    def default(self, obj): 

        """Tests the input object, obj, to encode as JSON.""" 

        if hasattr(obj, '__json__'): 
            return getattr(obj, '__json__')() 

        if isinstance(obj, db.GqlQuery): 
            return list(obj) 

        elif isinstance(obj, db.Model): 
            properties = obj.properties().items() 
            output = {} 
            for field, value in properties: 
                output[field] = getattr(obj, field) 
            return output 

        elif isinstance(obj, datetime.datetime): 
            output = {} 
            fields = ['day', 'hour', 'microsecond', 'minute', 'month', 'second', 'year'] 
            methods = ['ctime', 'isocalendar', 'isoformat', 'isoweekday', 'timetuple'] 
            for field in fields: 
                output[field] = getattr(obj, field) 
            for method in methods: 
                output[method] = getattr(obj, method)() 
            output['epoch'] = time.mktime(obj.timetuple()) 
            return output

        elif isinstance(obj, datetime.date): 
            output = {} 
            fields = ['year', 'month', 'day'] 
            methods = ['ctime', 'isocalendar', 'isoformat', 'isoweekday', 'timetuple'] 
            for field in fields: 
                output[field] = getattr(obj, field) 
            for method in methods: 
                output[method] = getattr(obj, method)() 
            output['epoch'] = time.mktime(obj.timetuple()) 
            return output 

        elif isinstance(obj, time.struct_time): 
            return list(obj) 

        elif isinstance(obj, users.User): 
            output = {} 
            methods = ['nickname', 'email', 'auth_domain'] 
            for method in methods: 
                output[method] = getattr(obj, method)() 
            return output 

        return simplejson.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj) 

As I've saved this class in a file called utils.py and when appropriate I import it using

import utils

Then I just call utils.GqlEncoder().encode(results), for example:

query = User.all()
results = query.fetch(10)

self.response.headers['Content-Type'] = "text/plain" # Alt. application/json
self.response.out.write( utils.GqlEncoder().encode(results) )

The result should look something like this (I've added some line feeds in order to make it a bit easier to read):

[
{"date": {"ctime": "Tue Feb 23 10:41:21 2010", "hour": 10, "isoweekday": 2, "month": 2, 
        "second": 21, "microsecond": 495535, "isocalendar": [2010, 8, 2], "timetuple": [2010, 2, 23, 10, 41, 21, 1, 54, -1], 
        "year": 2010, "epoch": 1266921681.0, "isoformat": "2010-02-23T10:41:21.495535", "day": 23, "minute": 41}, 
"claimed_id": "https:\/\/www.google.com\/accounts\/o8\/id?id=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvxyz", 
"display_name": "Alfred E Neumann", 
"email": null, 
"full_name": "Alfred E Neumann"
}, 
{"date": {"ctime": "Tue Feb 23 11:00:54 2010", "hour": 11, "isoweekday": 2, "month": 2, 
        "second": 54, "microsecond": 805261, "isocalendar": [2010, 8, 2], "timetuple": [2010, 2, 23, 11, 0, 54, 1, 54, -1], 
        "year": 2010, "epoch": 1266922854.0, "isoformat": "2010-02-23T11:00:54.805261", "day": 23, "minute": 0}, 
"claimed_id": "http:\/\/openid.domain.net\/john", 
"display_name": "", 
"email": "jp@domain.net", 
"full_name": "John Parnefjord"
}
]