cardinal_pythonlib.django.fields.jsonclassfield
Original code copyright (C) 2009-2022 Rudolf Cardinal (rudolf@pobox.com).
This file is part of cardinal_pythonlib.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Django field class implementing storage of arbitrary Python objects in a database, so long as they are serializable to/from JSON.
We were using
django-picklefield
andPickledObjectField
.However, this fails in a nasty way if you add new attributes to a class that has been pickled, and anyway pickle is insecure (as it trusts its input).
JSON is better. https://www.benfrederickson.com/dont-pickle-your-data/
JSON fields in Django: https://djangopackages.org/grids/g/json-fields/
https://paltman.com/how-to-store-arbitrary-data-in-a-django-model/
Native Django JSONField requires PostgreSQL, and is not part of the core set of fields:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/contrib/postgres/fields/#django.contrib.postgres.fields.JSONField https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/models/fields/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6578986/how-to-convert-json-data-into-a-python-object
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3768895/how-to-make-a-class-json-serializable
e.g.:
import inspect
import json
from typing import Any, Dict, Union
class Thing(object):
def __init__(self, a: int = 1, b: str = ''):
self.a = a
self.b = b
def __repr__(self) -> str:
return "<Thing(a={}, b={}) at {}>".format(
repr(self.a), repr(self.b), hex(id(self)))
MY_JSON_TYPES = {
'Thing': Thing,
}
TYPE_LABEL = '__type__'
class MyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj: Any) -> Any:
typename = type(obj).__name__
if typename in MY_JSON_TYPES.keys():
d = obj.__dict__
d[TYPE_LABEL] = typename
return d
return super().default(obj)
class MyDecoder(json.JSONDecoder): # INADEQUATE for nested things
def decode(self, s: str) -> Any:
o = super().decode(s)
if isinstance(o, dict):
typename = o.get(TYPE_LABEL, '')
if typename and typename in MY_JSON_TYPES:
classtype = MY_JSON_TYPES[typename]
o.pop(TYPE_LABEL)
return classtype(**o)
return o
def my_decoder_hook(d: Dict) -> Any:
if TYPE_LABEL in d:
typename = d.get(TYPE_LABEL, '')
if typename and typename in MY_JSON_TYPES:
classtype = MY_JSON_TYPES[typename]
d.pop(TYPE_LABEL)
return classtype(**d)
return d
x = Thing(a=5, b="hello")
y = [1, x, 2]
# Encoding:
j = MyEncoder().encode(x) # OK
j2 = json.dumps(x, cls=MyEncoder) # OK; same result
k = MyEncoder().encode(y) # OK
k2 = json.dumps(y, cls=MyEncoder) # OK; same result
# Decoding
x2 = MyDecoder().decode(j) # OK, but simple structure
y2 = MyDecoder().decode(k) # FAILS
y3 = json.JSONDecoder(object_hook=my_decoder_hook).decode(k) # SUCCEEDS
print(repr(x))
print(repr(x2))
- class cardinal_pythonlib.django.fields.jsonclassfield.JsonClassField(*args, db_collation=None, **kwargs)[source]
Django field that serializes Python objects into JSON.
- from_db_value(value, expression, connection)[source]
“Called in all circumstances when the data is loaded from the database, including in aggregates and values() calls.”
- get_prep_value(value)[source]
Converse of
to_python()
. Converts Python objects back to query values.
- to_python(value)[source]
“Called during deserialization and during the clean() method used from forms…. [s]hould deal gracefully with… (*) an instance of the correct type; (*) a string; (*) None (if the field allows null=True).”
“For
to_python()
, if anything goes wrong during value conversion, you should raise aValidationError
exception.”