Can I serialize a RealmObject to JSON or to NSDictionary in Realm for Swift?

Question

I'm testing Realm, but I cant find a easy way to convert my object to JSON. I need to push the data to my REST interface. How can I do it using swift?

class Dog: Object {
  dynamic var name = ""
}

class Person : Object {
  dynamic var name = ""
  let dogs = List<Dog>()
}

I'm trying something like this, but I can't iterate unknown objects (List)

extension Object {
  func toDictionary() -> NSDictionary {
    let props = self.objectSchema.properties.map { $0.name }
    var dicProps = self.dictionaryWithValuesForKeys(props)

    var mutabledic = NSMutableDictionary()
    mutabledic.setValuesForKeysWithDictionary(dicProps)

    for prop in self.objectSchema.properties as [Property]! {

      if let objectClassName = prop.objectClassName  {
        if let x = self[prop.name] as? Object {
          mutabledic.setValue(x.toDictionary(), forKey: prop.name)
        } else {
          //problem here!
        }
      }
    }
    return mutabledic
  }
}

**sorry for ugly code.

Answer 1

I am also new to Realm but I think the easiest way is to reflect on Object's schema:

class Person: Object {
    dynamic var name = ""
    dynamic var age = 0
}

let person = Person()

let schema = person.objectSchema

let properties = schema.properties.map() { $0.name }

let dictionary = person.dictionaryWithValuesForKeys(properties) // NSDictionary

println(properties)
println(dictionary)

Answer 2

I think that I found the solution. I'm not reliant about performance.

extension Object {
  func toDictionary() -> NSDictionary {
    let properties = self.objectSchema.properties.map { $0.name }
    let dicProps = self.dictionaryWithValuesForKeys(properties)

    var mutabledic = NSMutableDictionary()
    mutabledic.setValuesForKeysWithDictionary(dicProps)

    for prop in self.objectSchema.properties as [Property]! {

      if let objectClassName = prop.objectClassName  {
        if let nestedObject = self[prop.name] as? Object {
          mutabledic.setValue(nestedObject.toDictionary(), forKey: prop.name)
        } else if let nestedListObject = self[prop.name] as? ListBase {
            var objects = [AnyObject]()
            for index in 0..<nestedListObject._rlmArray.count  {
              if let object = nestedListObject._rlmArray[index] as? Object {
                objects.append(object.toDictionary())
              }
            }
            mutabledic.setObject(objects, forKey: prop.name)
        }
      }
    }
    return mutabledic
  }
}

Answer 3

Here is my solution. use unsafeBitCast to avoid cast fail warning.

extension Object {
    func toDictionary() -> [String:AnyObject] {
        let properties = self.objectSchema.properties.map { $0.name }
        var dicProps = [String:AnyObject]()
        for (key, value) in self.dictionaryWithValuesForKeys(properties) {
            if let value = value as? ListBase {
                dicProps[key] = value.toArray()
            } else if let value = value as? Object {
                dicProps[key] = value.toDictionary()
            } else {
                dicProps[key] = value
            }
        }
        return dicProps
    }
}

extension ListBase {
    func toArray() -> [AnyObject] {
        var _toArray = [AnyObject]()
        for i in 0..<self._rlmArray.count {
            let obj = unsafeBitCast(self._rlmArray[i], Object.self)
            _toArray.append(obj.toDictionary())
        }
        return _toArray
    }
}