I've set up a metaclass and base class pair for creating the line specifications of several different file types I have to parse.
I have decided to go with using enumerations because many of the individual parts of the different lines in the same file often have the same name. Enums make it easy to tell them apart. Additionally, the specification is rigid and there will be no need to add more members, or extend the line specifications later.
The specification classes work as expected. However, I am having some trouble dynamically creating them:
>>> C1 = LineMakerMeta('C1', (LineMakerBase,), dict(a = 0))
AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute '_member_names'
Is there a way around this? The example below works just fine:
class A1(LineMakerBase):
Mode = 0, dict(fill=' ', align='>', type='s')
Level = 8, dict(fill=' ', align='>', type='d')
Method = 10, dict(fill=' ', align='>', type='d')
_dummy = 20 # so that Method has a known length
A1.format(**dict(Mode='DESIGN', Level=3, Method=1))
# produces ' DESIGN 3 1'
The metaclass is based on enum.EnumMeta, and looks like this:
import enum
class LineMakerMeta(enum.EnumMeta):
"Metaclass to produce formattable LineMaker child classes."
def _iter_format(cls):
"Iteratively generate formatters for the class members."
for member in cls:
yield member.formatter
def __str__(cls):
"Returns string line with all default values."
return cls.format()
def format(cls, **kwargs):
"Create formatted version of the line populated by the kwargs members."
# build resulting string by iterating through members
result = ''
for member in cls:
# determine value to be injected into member
try:
try:
value = kwargs[member]
except KeyError:
value = kwargs[member.name]
except KeyError:
value = member.default
value_str = member.populate(value)
result = result + value_str
return result
And the base class is as follows:
class LineMakerBase(enum.Enum, metaclass=LineMakerMeta):
"""A base class for creating Enum subclasses used for populating lines of a file.
Usage:
class LineMaker(LineMakerBase):
a = 0, dict(align='>', fill=' ', type='f'), 3.14
b = 10, dict(align='>', fill=' ', type='d'), 1
b = 15, dict(align='>', fill=' ', type='s'), 'foo'
# ^-start ^---spec dictionary ^--default
"""
def __init__(member, start, spec={}, default=None):
member.start = start
member.spec = spec
if default is not None:
member.default = default
else:
# assume value is numerical for all provided types other than 's' (string)
default_or_set_type = member.spec.get('type','s')
default = {'s': ''}.get(default_or_set_type, 0)
member.default = default
#property
def formatter(member):
"""Produces a formatter in form of '{0:<format>}' based on the member.spec
dictionary. The member.spec dictionary makes use of these keys ONLY (see
the string.format docs):
fill align sign width grouping_option precision type"""
try:
# get cached value
return '{{0:{}}}'.format(member._formatter)
except AttributeError:
# add width to format spec if not there
member.spec.setdefault('width', member.length if member.length != 0 else '')
# build formatter using the available parts in the member.spec dictionary
# any missing parts will simply not be present in the formatter
formatter = ''
for part in 'fill align sign width grouping_option precision type'.split():
try:
spec_value = member.spec[part]
except KeyError:
# missing part
continue
else:
# add part
sub_formatter = '{!s}'.format(spec_value)
formatter = formatter + sub_formatter
member._formatter = formatter
return '{{0:{}}}'.format(formatter)
def populate(member, value=None):
"Injects the value into the member's formatter and returns the formatted string."
formatter = member.formatter
if value is not None:
value_str = formatter.format(value)
else:
value_str = formatter.format(member.default)
if len(value_str) > len(member) and len(member) != 0:
raise ValueError(
'Length of object string {} ({}) exceeds available'
' field length for {} ({}).'
.format(value_str, len(value_str), member.name, len(member)))
return value_str
#property
def length(member):
return len(member)
def __len__(member):
"""Returns the length of the member field. The last member has no length.
Length are based on simple subtraction of starting positions."""
# get cached value
try:
return member._length
# calculate member length
except AttributeError:
# compare by member values because member could be an alias
members = list(type(member))
try:
next_index = next(
i+1
for i,m in enumerate(type(member))
if m.value == member.value
)
except StopIteration:
raise TypeError(
'The member value {} was not located in the {}.'
.format(member.value, type(member).__name__)
)
try:
next_member = members[next_index]
except IndexError:
# last member defaults to no length
length = 0
else:
length = next_member.start - member.start
member._length = length
return length
This line:
C1 = enum.EnumMeta('C1', (), dict(a = 0))
fails with exactly the same error message. The __new__ method of EnumMeta expects an instance of enum._EnumDict as its last argument. _EnumDict is a subclass of dict and provides an instance variable named _member_names, which of course a regular dict doesn't have. When you go through the standard mechanism of enum creation, this all happens correctly behind the scenes. That's why your other example works just fine.
This line:
C1 = enum.EnumMeta('C1', (), enum._EnumDict())
runs with no error. Unfortunately, the constructor of _EnumDict is defined as taking no arguments, so you can't initialize it with keywords as you apparently want to do.
In the implementation of enum that's backported to Python3.3, the following block of code appears in the constructor of EnumMeta. You could do something similar in your LineMakerMeta class:
def __new__(metacls, cls, bases, classdict):
if type(classdict) is dict:
original_dict = classdict
classdict = _EnumDict()
for k, v in original_dict.items():
classdict[k] = v
In the official implementation, in Python3.5, the if statement and the subsequent block of code is gone for some reason. Therefore classdict must be an honest-to-god _EnumDict, and I don't see why this was done. In any case the implementation of Enum is extremely complicated and handles a lot of corner cases.
I realize this is not a cut-and-dried answer to your question but I hope it will point you to a solution.
Create your LineMakerBase class, and then use it like so:
C1 = LineMakerBase('C1', dict(a=0))
The metaclass was not meant to be used the way you are trying to use it. Check out this answer for advice on when metaclass subclasses are needed.
Some suggestions for your code:
the double try/except in format seems clearer as:
for member in cls:
if member in kwargs:
value = kwargs[member]
elif member.name in kwargs:
value = kwargs[member.name]
else:
value = member.default
this code:
# compare by member values because member could be an alias
members = list(type(member))
would be clearer with list(member.__class__)
has a false comment: listing an Enum class will never include the aliases (unless you have overridden that part of EnumMeta)
instead of the complicated __len__ code you have now, and as long as you are subclassing EnumMeta you should extend __new__ to automatically calculate the lengths once:
# untested
def __new__(metacls, cls, bases, clsdict):
# let the main EnumMeta code do the heavy lifting
enum_cls = super(LineMakerMeta, metacls).__new__(cls, bases, clsdict)
# go through the members and calculate the lengths
canonical_members = [
member
for name, member in enum_cls.__members__.items()
if name == member.name
]
last_member = None
for next_member in canonical_members:
next_member.length = 0
if last_member is not None:
last_member.length = next_member.start - last_member.start
The simplest way to create Enum subclasses on the fly is using Enum itself:
>>> from enum import Enum
>>> MyEnum = Enum('MyEnum', {'a': 0})
>>> MyEnum
<enum 'MyEnum'>
>>> MyEnum.a
<MyEnum.a: 0>
>>> type(MyEnum)
<class 'enum.EnumMeta'>
As for your custom methods, it might be simpler if you used regular functions, precisely because Enum implementation is so special.
Django has some good automatic serialization of ORM models returned from DB to JSON format.
How to serialize SQLAlchemy query result to JSON format?
I tried jsonpickle.encode but it encodes query object itself.
I tried json.dumps(items) but it returns
TypeError: <Product('3', 'some name', 'some desc')> is not JSON serializable
Is it really so hard to serialize SQLAlchemy ORM objects to JSON /XML? Isn't there any default serializer for it? It's very common task to serialize ORM query results nowadays.
What I need is just to return JSON or XML data representation of SQLAlchemy query result.
SQLAlchemy objects query result in JSON/XML format is needed to be used in javascript datagird (JQGrid http://www.trirand.com/blog/)
You could just output your object as a dictionary:
class User:
def as_dict(self):
return {c.name: getattr(self, c.name) for c in self.__table__.columns}
And then you use User.as_dict() to serialize your object.
As explained in Convert sqlalchemy row object to python dict
A flat implementation
You could use something like this:
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import DeclarativeMeta
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
# an SQLAlchemy class
fields = {}
for field in [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith('_') and x != 'metadata']:
data = obj.__getattribute__(field)
try:
json.dumps(data) # this will fail on non-encodable values, like other classes
fields[field] = data
except TypeError:
fields[field] = None
# a json-encodable dict
return fields
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
and then convert to JSON using:
c = YourAlchemyClass()
print json.dumps(c, cls=AlchemyEncoder)
It will ignore fields that are not encodable (set them to 'None').
It doesn't auto-expand relations (since this could lead to self-references, and loop forever).
A recursive, non-circular implementation
If, however, you'd rather loop forever, you could use:
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import DeclarativeMeta
def new_alchemy_encoder():
_visited_objs = []
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
# don't re-visit self
if obj in _visited_objs:
return None
_visited_objs.append(obj)
# an SQLAlchemy class
fields = {}
for field in [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith('_') and x != 'metadata']:
fields[field] = obj.__getattribute__(field)
# a json-encodable dict
return fields
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
return AlchemyEncoder
And then encode objects using:
print json.dumps(e, cls=new_alchemy_encoder(), check_circular=False)
This would encode all children, and all their children, and all their children... Potentially encode your entire database, basically. When it reaches something its encoded before, it will encode it as 'None'.
A recursive, possibly-circular, selective implementation
Another alternative, probably better, is to be able to specify the fields you want to expand:
def new_alchemy_encoder(revisit_self = False, fields_to_expand = []):
_visited_objs = []
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
# don't re-visit self
if revisit_self:
if obj in _visited_objs:
return None
_visited_objs.append(obj)
# go through each field in this SQLalchemy class
fields = {}
for field in [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith('_') and x != 'metadata']:
val = obj.__getattribute__(field)
# is this field another SQLalchemy object, or a list of SQLalchemy objects?
if isinstance(val.__class__, DeclarativeMeta) or (isinstance(val, list) and len(val) > 0 and isinstance(val[0].__class__, DeclarativeMeta)):
# unless we're expanding this field, stop here
if field not in fields_to_expand:
# not expanding this field: set it to None and continue
fields[field] = None
continue
fields[field] = val
# a json-encodable dict
return fields
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
return AlchemyEncoder
You can now call it with:
print json.dumps(e, cls=new_alchemy_encoder(False, ['parents']), check_circular=False)
To only expand SQLAlchemy fields called 'parents', for example.
Python 3.7+ and Flask 1.1+ can use the built-in dataclasses package
from dataclasses import dataclass
from datetime import datetime
from flask import Flask, jsonify
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
app = Flask(__name__)
db = SQLAlchemy(app)
#dataclass
class User(db.Model):
id: int
email: str
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True, auto_increment=True)
email = db.Column(db.String(200), unique=True)
#app.route('/users/')
def users():
users = User.query.all()
return jsonify(users)
if __name__ == "__main__":
users = User(email="user1#gmail.com"), User(email="user2#gmail.com")
db.create_all()
db.session.add_all(users)
db.session.commit()
app.run()
The /users/ route will now return a list of users.
[
{"email": "user1#gmail.com", "id": 1},
{"email": "user2#gmail.com", "id": 2}
]
Auto-serialize related models
#dataclass
class Account(db.Model):
id: int
users: User
id = db.Column(db.Integer)
users = db.relationship(User) # User model would need a db.ForeignKey field
The response from jsonify(account) would be this.
{
"id":1,
"users":[
{
"email":"user1#gmail.com",
"id":1
},
{
"email":"user2#gmail.com",
"id":2
}
]
}
Overwrite the default JSON Encoder
from flask.json import JSONEncoder
class CustomJSONEncoder(JSONEncoder):
"Add support for serializing timedeltas"
def default(o):
if type(o) == datetime.timedelta:
return str(o)
if type(o) == datetime.datetime:
return o.isoformat()
return super().default(o)
app.json_encoder = CustomJSONEncoder
You can convert a RowProxy to a dict like this:
d = dict(row.items())
Then serialize that to JSON ( you will have to specify an encoder for things like datetime values )
It's not that hard if you just want one record ( and not a full hierarchy of related records ).
json.dumps([(dict(row.items())) for row in rs])
I recommend using marshmallow. It allows you to create serializers to represent your model instances with support to relations and nested objects.
Here is a truncated example from their docs. Take the ORM model, Author:
class Author(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
first = db.Column(db.String(80))
last = db.Column(db.String(80))
A marshmallow schema for that class is constructed like this:
class AuthorSchema(Schema):
id = fields.Int(dump_only=True)
first = fields.Str()
last = fields.Str()
formatted_name = fields.Method("format_name", dump_only=True)
def format_name(self, author):
return "{}, {}".format(author.last, author.first)
...and used like this:
author_schema = AuthorSchema()
author_schema.dump(Author.query.first())
...would produce an output like this:
{
"first": "Tim",
"formatted_name": "Peters, Tim",
"id": 1,
"last": "Peters"
}
Have a look at their full Flask-SQLAlchemy Example.
A library called marshmallow-sqlalchemy specifically integrates SQLAlchemy and marshmallow. In that library, the schema for the Author model described above looks like this:
class AuthorSchema(ModelSchema):
class Meta:
model = Author
The integration allows the field types to be inferred from the SQLAlchemy Column types.
marshmallow-sqlalchemy here.
You can use introspection of SqlAlchemy as this :
mysql = SQLAlchemy()
from sqlalchemy import inspect
class Contacts(mysql.Model):
__tablename__ = 'CONTACTS'
id = mysql.Column(mysql.Integer, primary_key=True)
first_name = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
last_name = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
phone = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
email = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
street = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
zip_code = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
city = mysql.Column(mysql.String(128), nullable=False)
def toDict(self):
return { c.key: getattr(self, c.key) for c in inspect(self).mapper.column_attrs }
#app.route('/contacts',methods=['GET'])
def getContacts():
contacts = Contacts.query.all()
contactsArr = []
for contact in contacts:
contactsArr.append(contact.toDict())
return jsonify(contactsArr)
#app.route('/contacts/<int:id>',methods=['GET'])
def getContact(id):
contact = Contacts.query.get(id)
return jsonify(contact.toDict())
Get inspired from an answer here :
Convert sqlalchemy row object to python dict
Flask-JsonTools package has an implementation of JsonSerializableBase Base class for your models.
Usage:
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from flask.ext.jsontools import JsonSerializableBase
Base = declarative_base(cls=(JsonSerializableBase,))
class User(Base):
#...
Now the User model is magically serializable.
If your framework is not Flask, you can just grab the code
For security reasons you should never return all the model's fields. I prefer to selectively choose them.
Flask's json encoding now supports UUID, datetime and relationships (and added query and query_class for flask_sqlalchemy db.Model class). I've updated the encoder as follows:
app/json_encoder.py
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import DeclarativeMeta
from flask import json
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, o):
if isinstance(o.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
data = {}
fields = o.__json__() if hasattr(o, '__json__') else dir(o)
for field in [f for f in fields if not f.startswith('_') and f not in ['metadata', 'query', 'query_class']]:
value = o.__getattribute__(field)
try:
json.dumps(value)
data[field] = value
except TypeError:
data[field] = None
return data
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, o)
app/__init__.py
# json encoding
from app.json_encoder import AlchemyEncoder
app.json_encoder = AlchemyEncoder
With this I can optionally add a __json__ property that returns the list of fields I wish to encode:
app/models.py
class Queue(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
song_id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('song.id'), unique=True, nullable=False)
song = db.relationship('Song', lazy='joined')
type = db.Column(db.String(20), server_default=u'audio/mpeg')
src = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
created_at = db.Column(db.DateTime, server_default=db.func.now())
updated_at = db.Column(db.DateTime, server_default=db.func.now(), onupdate=db.func.now())
def __init__(self, song):
self.song = song
self.src = song.full_path
def __json__(self):
return ['song', 'src', 'type', 'created_at']
I add #jsonapi to my view, return the resultlist and then my output is as follows:
[
{
"created_at": "Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:36:53 GMT",
"song":
{
"full_path": "/static/music/Audioslave/Audioslave [2002]/1 Cochise.mp3",
"id": 2,
"path_name": "Audioslave/Audioslave [2002]/1 Cochise.mp3"
},
"src": "/static/music/Audioslave/Audioslave [2002]/1 Cochise.mp3",
"type": "audio/mpeg"
}
]
A more detailed explanation.
In your model, add:
def as_dict(self):
return {c.name: str(getattr(self, c.name)) for c in self.__table__.columns}
The str() is for python 3 so if using python 2 use unicode(). It should help deserialize dates. You can remove it if not dealing with those.
You can now query the database like this
some_result = User.query.filter_by(id=current_user.id).first().as_dict()
First() is needed to avoid weird errors. as_dict() will now deserialize the result. After deserialization, it is ready to be turned to json
jsonify(some_result)
While the original question goes back awhile, the number of answers here (and my own experiences) suggest it's a non-trivial question with a lot of different approaches of varying complexity with different trade-offs.
That's why I built the SQLAthanor library that extends SQLAlchemy's declarative ORM with configurable serialization/de-serialization support that you might want to take a look at.
The library supports:
Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6.
SQLAlchemy versions 0.9 and higher
serialization/de-serialization to/from JSON, CSV, YAML, and Python dict
serialization/de-serialization of columns/attributes, relationships, hybrid properties, and association proxies
enabling and disabling of serialization for particular formats and columns/relationships/attributes (e.g. you want to support an inbound password value, but never include an outbound one)
pre-serialization and post-deserialization value processing (for validation or type coercion)
a pretty straightforward syntax that is both Pythonic and seamlessly consistent with SQLAlchemy's own approach
You can check out the (I hope!) comprehensive docs here: https://sqlathanor.readthedocs.io/en/latest
Hope this helps!
Custom serialization and deserialization.
"from_json" (class method) builds a Model object based on json data.
"deserialize" could be called only on instance, and merge all data from json into Model instance.
"serialize" - recursive serialization
__write_only__ property is needed to define write only properties ("password_hash" for example).
class Serializable(object):
__exclude__ = ('id',)
__include__ = ()
__write_only__ = ()
#classmethod
def from_json(cls, json, selfObj=None):
if selfObj is None:
self = cls()
else:
self = selfObj
exclude = (cls.__exclude__ or ()) + Serializable.__exclude__
include = cls.__include__ or ()
if json:
for prop, value in json.iteritems():
# ignore all non user data, e.g. only
if (not (prop in exclude) | (prop in include)) and isinstance(
getattr(cls, prop, None), QueryableAttribute):
setattr(self, prop, value)
return self
def deserialize(self, json):
if not json:
return None
return self.__class__.from_json(json, selfObj=self)
#classmethod
def serialize_list(cls, object_list=[]):
output = []
for li in object_list:
if isinstance(li, Serializable):
output.append(li.serialize())
else:
output.append(li)
return output
def serialize(self, **kwargs):
# init write only props
if len(getattr(self.__class__, '__write_only__', ())) == 0:
self.__class__.__write_only__ = ()
dictionary = {}
expand = kwargs.get('expand', ()) or ()
prop = 'props'
if expand:
# expand all the fields
for key in expand:
getattr(self, key)
iterable = self.__dict__.items()
is_custom_property_set = False
# include only properties passed as parameter
if (prop in kwargs) and (kwargs.get(prop, None) is not None):
is_custom_property_set = True
iterable = kwargs.get(prop, None)
# loop trough all accessible properties
for key in iterable:
accessor = key
if isinstance(key, tuple):
accessor = key[0]
if not (accessor in self.__class__.__write_only__) and not accessor.startswith('_'):
# force select from db to be able get relationships
if is_custom_property_set:
getattr(self, accessor, None)
if isinstance(self.__dict__.get(accessor), list):
dictionary[accessor] = self.__class__.serialize_list(object_list=self.__dict__.get(accessor))
# check if those properties are read only
elif isinstance(self.__dict__.get(accessor), Serializable):
dictionary[accessor] = self.__dict__.get(accessor).serialize()
else:
dictionary[accessor] = self.__dict__.get(accessor)
return dictionary
Here is a solution that lets you select the relations you want to include in your output as deep as you would like to go.
NOTE: This is a complete re-write taking a dict/str as an arg rather than a list. fixes some stuff..
def deep_dict(self, relations={}):
"""Output a dict of an SA object recursing as deep as you want.
Takes one argument, relations which is a dictionary of relations we'd
like to pull out. The relations dict items can be a single relation
name or deeper relation names connected by sub dicts
Example:
Say we have a Person object with a family relationship
person.deep_dict(relations={'family':None})
Say the family object has homes as a relation then we can do
person.deep_dict(relations={'family':{'homes':None}})
OR
person.deep_dict(relations={'family':'homes'})
Say homes has a relation like rooms you can do
person.deep_dict(relations={'family':{'homes':'rooms'}})
and so on...
"""
mydict = dict((c, str(a)) for c, a in
self.__dict__.items() if c != '_sa_instance_state')
if not relations:
# just return ourselves
return mydict
# otherwise we need to go deeper
if not isinstance(relations, dict) and not isinstance(relations, str):
raise Exception("relations should be a dict, it is of type {}".format(type(relations)))
# got here so check and handle if we were passed a dict
if isinstance(relations, dict):
# we were passed deeper info
for left, right in relations.items():
myrel = getattr(self, left)
if isinstance(myrel, list):
mydict[left] = [rel.deep_dict(relations=right) for rel in myrel]
else:
mydict[left] = myrel.deep_dict(relations=right)
# if we get here check and handle if we were passed a string
elif isinstance(relations, str):
# passed a single item
myrel = getattr(self, relations)
left = relations
if isinstance(myrel, list):
mydict[left] = [rel.deep_dict(relations=None)
for rel in myrel]
else:
mydict[left] = myrel.deep_dict(relations=None)
return mydict
so for an example using person/family/homes/rooms... turning it into json all you need is
json.dumps(person.deep_dict(relations={'family':{'homes':'rooms'}}))
step1:
class CNAME:
...
def as_dict(self):
return {item.name: getattr(self, item.name) for item in self.__table__.columns}
step2:
list = []
for data in session.query(CNAME).all():
list.append(data.as_dict())
step3:
return jsonify(list)
Even though it's a old post, Maybe I didn't answer the question above, but I want to talk about my serialization, at least it works for me.
I use FastAPI,SqlAlchemy and MySQL, but I don't use orm model;
# from sqlalchemy import create_engine
# from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
# engine = create_engine(config.SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL, pool_pre_ping=True)
# SessionLocal = sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine)
Serialization code
import decimal
import datetime
def alchemy_encoder(obj):
"""JSON encoder function for SQLAlchemy special classes."""
if isinstance(obj, datetime.date):
return obj.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
elif isinstance(obj, decimal.Decimal):
return float(obj)
import json
from sqlalchemy import text
# db is SessionLocal() object
app_sql = 'SELECT * FROM app_info ORDER BY app_id LIMIT :page,:page_size'
# The next two are the parameters passed in
page = 1
page_size = 10
# execute sql and return a <class 'sqlalchemy.engine.result.ResultProxy'> object
app_list = db.execute(text(app_sql), {'page': page, 'page_size': page_size})
# serialize
res = json.loads(json.dumps([dict(r) for r in app_list], default=alchemy_encoder))
If it doesn't work, please ignore my answer. I refer to it here
https://codeandlife.com/2014/12/07/sqlalchemy-results-to-json-the-easy-way/
install simplejson by
pip install simplejson and the create a class
class Serialise(object):
def _asdict(self):
"""
Serialization logic for converting entities using flask's jsonify
:return: An ordered dictionary
:rtype: :class:`collections.OrderedDict`
"""
result = OrderedDict()
# Get the columns
for key in self.__mapper__.c.keys():
if isinstance(getattr(self, key), datetime):
result["x"] = getattr(self, key).timestamp() * 1000
result["timestamp"] = result["x"]
else:
result[key] = getattr(self, key)
return result
and inherit this class to every orm classes so that this _asdict function gets registered to every ORM class and boom.
And use jsonify anywhere
It is not so straighforward. I wrote some code to do this. I'm still working on it, and it uses the MochiKit framework. It basically translates compound objects between Python and Javascript using a proxy and registered JSON converters.
Browser side for database objects is db.js
It needs the basic Python proxy source in proxy.js.
On the Python side there is the base proxy module.
Then finally the SqlAlchemy object encoder in webserver.py.
It also depends on metadata extractors found in the models.py file.
def alc2json(row):
return dict([(col, str(getattr(row,col))) for col in row.__table__.columns.keys()])
I thought I'd play a little code golf with this one.
FYI: I am using automap_base since we have a separately designed schema according to business requirements. I just started using SQLAlchemy today but the documentation states that automap_base is an extension to declarative_base which seems to be the typical paradigm in the SQLAlchemy ORM so I believe this should work.
It does not get fancy with following foreign keys per Tjorriemorrie's solution, but it simply matches columns to values and handles Python types by str()-ing the column values. Our values consist Python datetime.time and decimal.Decimal class type results so it gets the job done.
Hope this helps any passers-by!
I know this is quite an older post. I took solution given by #SashaB and modified as per my need.
I added following things to it:
Field ignore list: A list of fields to be ignored while serializing
Field replace list: A dictionary containing field names to be replaced by values while serializing.
Removed methods and BaseQuery getting serialized
My code is as follows:
def alchemy_json_encoder(revisit_self = False, fields_to_expand = [], fields_to_ignore = [], fields_to_replace = {}):
"""
Serialize SQLAlchemy result into JSon
:param revisit_self: True / False
:param fields_to_expand: Fields which are to be expanded for including their children and all
:param fields_to_ignore: Fields to be ignored while encoding
:param fields_to_replace: Field keys to be replaced by values assigned in dictionary
:return: Json serialized SQLAlchemy object
"""
_visited_objs = []
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
# don't re-visit self
if revisit_self:
if obj in _visited_objs:
return None
_visited_objs.append(obj)
# go through each field in this SQLalchemy class
fields = {}
for field in [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith('_') and x != 'metadata' and x not in fields_to_ignore]:
val = obj.__getattribute__(field)
# is this field method defination, or an SQLalchemy object
if not hasattr(val, "__call__") and not isinstance(val, BaseQuery):
field_name = fields_to_replace[field] if field in fields_to_replace else field
# is this field another SQLalchemy object, or a list of SQLalchemy objects?
if isinstance(val.__class__, DeclarativeMeta) or \
(isinstance(val, list) and len(val) > 0 and isinstance(val[0].__class__, DeclarativeMeta)):
# unless we're expanding this field, stop here
if field not in fields_to_expand:
# not expanding this field: set it to None and continue
fields[field_name] = None
continue
fields[field_name] = val
# a json-encodable dict
return fields
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
return AlchemyEncoder
Hope it helps someone!
Use the built-in serializer in SQLAlchemy:
from sqlalchemy.ext.serializer import loads, dumps
obj = MyAlchemyObject()
# serialize object
serialized_obj = dumps(obj)
# deserialize object
obj = loads(serialized_obj)
If you're transferring the object between sessions, remember to detach the object from the current session using session.expunge(obj).
To attach it again, just do session.add(obj).
Under Flask, this works and handles datatime fields, transforming a field of type
'time': datetime.datetime(2018, 3, 22, 15, 40) into
"time": "2018-03-22 15:40:00":
obj = {c.name: str(getattr(self, c.name)) for c in self.__table__.columns}
# This to get the JSON body
return json.dumps(obj)
# Or this to get a response object
return jsonify(obj)
following code will serialize sqlalchemy result to json.
import json
from collections import OrderedDict
def asdict(self):
result = OrderedDict()
for key in self.__mapper__.c.keys():
if getattr(self, key) is not None:
result[key] = str(getattr(self, key))
else:
result[key] = getattr(self, key)
return result
def to_array(all_vendors):
v = [ ven.asdict() for ven in all_vendors ]
return json.dumps(v)
Calling fun,
def all_products():
all_products = Products.query.all()
return to_array(all_products)
The AlchemyEncoder is wonderful but sometimes fails with Decimal values. Here is an improved encoder that solves the decimal problem -
class AlchemyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
# To serialize SQLalchemy objects
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
model_fields = {}
for field in [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith('_') and x != 'metadata']:
data = obj.__getattribute__(field)
print data
try:
json.dumps(data) # this will fail on non-encodable values, like other classes
model_fields[field] = data
except TypeError:
model_fields[field] = None
return model_fields
if isinstance(obj, Decimal):
return float(obj)
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
When using sqlalchemy to connect to a db I this is a simple solution which is highly configurable. Use pandas.
import pandas as pd
import sqlalchemy
#sqlalchemy engine configuration
engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine....
def my_function():
#read in from sql directly into a pandas dataframe
#check the pandas documentation for additional config options
sql_DF = pd.read_sql_table("table_name", con=engine)
# "orient" is optional here but allows you to specify the json formatting you require
sql_json = sql_DF.to_json(orient="index")
return sql_json
(Tiny tweak on Sasha B's really excellent answer)
This specifically converts datetime objects to strings which in the original answer would be converted to None:
# Standard library imports
from datetime import datetime
import json
# 3rd party imports
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import DeclarativeMeta
class JsonEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
dict = {}
# Remove invalid fields and just get the column attributes
columns = [x for x in dir(obj) if not x.startswith("_") and x != "metadata"]
for column in columns:
value = obj.__getattribute__(column)
try:
json.dumps(value)
dict[column] = value
except TypeError:
if isinstance(value, datetime):
dict[column] = value.__str__()
else:
dict[column] = None
return dict
return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj)
class SqlToDict:
def __init__(self, data) -> None:
self.data = data
def to_timestamp(self, date):
if isinstance(date, datetime):
return int(datetime.timestamp(date))
else:
return date
def to_dict(self) -> List:
arr = []
for i in self.data:
keys = [*i.keys()]
values = [*i]
values = [self.to_timestamp(d) for d in values]
arr.append(dict(zip(keys, values)))
return arr
For example:
SqlToDict(data).to_dict()
Very late 2023
My implementation
def obj_to_dict(obj, remove=['_sa_instance_state'], debug=False):
result = {}
if type(obj).__name__ == "Row":
return dict(obj)
obj = obj.__dict__
for key in obj:
if key in remove:
continue
result[key] = obj[key]
if debug:
print(result)
return result
The built in serializer chokes with utf-8 cannot decode invalid start byte for some inputs. Instead, I went with:
def row_to_dict(row):
temp = row.__dict__
temp.pop('_sa_instance_state', None)
return temp
def rows_to_list(rows):
ret_rows = []
for row in rows:
ret_rows.append(row_to_dict(row))
return ret_rows
#website_blueprint.route('/api/v1/some/endpoint', methods=['GET'])
def some_api():
'''
/some_endpoint
'''
rows = rows_to_list(SomeModel.query.all())
response = app.response_class(
response=jsonplus.dumps(rows),
status=200,
mimetype='application/json'
)
return response
Maybe you can use a class like this
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declared_attr
from sqlalchemy import Table
class Custom:
"""Some custom logic here!"""
__table__: Table # def for mypy
#declared_attr
def __tablename__(cls): # pylint: disable=no-self-argument
return cls.__name__ # pylint: disable= no-member
def to_dict(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
"""Serializes only column data."""
return {c.name: getattr(self, c.name) for c in self.__table__.columns}
Base = declarative_base(cls=Custom)
class MyOwnTable(Base):
#COLUMNS!
With that all objects have the to_dict method
While using some raw sql and undefined objects, using cursor.description appeared to get what I was looking for:
with connection.cursor() as cur:
print(query)
cur.execute(query)
for item in cur.fetchall():
row = {column.name: item[i] for i, column in enumerate(cur.description)}
print(row)
This is a JSONEncoder version that preserves model column order and only keeps recursively defined column and relationship fields. It also formats most JSON unserializable types:
import json
from datetime import datetime
from decimal import Decimal
import arrow
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import DeclarativeMeta
class SQLAlchemyJSONEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
"""
SQLAlchemy ORM JSON Encoder
If you have a "backref" relationship defined in your SQLAlchemy model,
this encoder raises a ValueError to stop an infinite loop.
"""
def default(self, obj):
if isinstance(obj, datetime):
return arrow.get(obj).isoformat()
elif isinstance(obj, Decimal):
return float(obj)
elif isinstance(obj, set):
return sorted(obj)
elif isinstance(obj.__class__, DeclarativeMeta):
for attribute, relationship in obj.__mapper__.relationships.items():
if isinstance(relationship.__getattribute__("backref"), tuple):
raise ValueError(
f'{obj.__class__} object has a "backref" relationship '
"that would cause an infinite loop!"
)
dictionary = {}
column_names = [column.name for column in obj.__table__.columns]
for key in column_names:
value = obj.__getattribute__(key)
if isinstance(value, datetime):
value = arrow.get(value).isoformat()
elif isinstance(value, Decimal):
value = float(value)
elif isinstance(value, set):
value = sorted(value)
dictionary[key] = value
for key in [
attribute
for attribute in dir(obj)
if not attribute.startswith("_")
and attribute != "metadata"
and attribute not in column_names
]:
value = obj.__getattribute__(key)
dictionary[key] = value
return dictionary
return super().default(obj)
I repeatedly find myself in a position where I'm writing specific django model instance fields into a list for various reasons (exporting to CSV, logging) and I'd imagine the same is true for many other people.
Generating a report could require traversing through foreign keys IF they exist. The larger the report, the more unreadable the code gets as I wrap attribute getter attempts in try/except blocks.
Optional foreign keys are also problems: item.optional_fk.optional_date.method()
for item in django_model_instances:
try:
date_created = item.order.date_created.strftime('%Y/%m/%d')
except AttributeError:
date_created = ''
try:
date_complete = item.order.date_complete.strftime('%Y/%m/%d')
except AttributeError:
date_complete = ''
# perhaps more try/except...
writer.writerow([
item.optional_fk.optional_field.strtime('%Y'),
item.optional_fk.method(),
item.bar,
date_created,
# other attributes...
date_complete,
# other attributes...
])
As you have more columns to write the code starts to look like a monster.
I like the readability of using eval() wrapped in try/except but I read I should avoid eval like the plague.
Is using eval in Python a bad practice?
There is almost always a better way to do it - trying to find a better way without writing too much code :)
Very dangerous and insecure - the strings are hard coded
Makes debugging difficult - True
Slow - code is for generating reports, it can be slow.
.
def no_exceptions_getter(item, statement):
try:
return eval(statement)
except AttributeError, e:
log.debug(e)
return ''
for item in django_model_instances:
writer.writerow([no_exceptions_getter(item, x) for x in (
'item.foo',
'item.bar',
'item.date_created.strftime("%Y/%m/%d")',
'item.date_complete.strftime("%Y/%m/%d")',
'item.optional_foreign_key.foo',
# more items in a readable list format
)])
I don't see the security vulnerability, speed or debugging problems being an issue.
So my question for you experts out there is: is this an OK use of eval?
Why aren't you just using getattr?
for item in django_model_instances:
date_created = getattr(item.order, 'date_created', '')
if date_created:
date_created = date_created.strftime('%Y/%m/%d')
or a simple wrapper, if this particular pattern is used a lot:
def get_strftime(object, attr):
value = getattr(object, attr, None)
if value is None:
return ''
return value.strftime('%Y/%m/%d')
writer.writerow([
item.foo,
item.bar,
get_strftime(item.order, 'date_created'),
get_strftime(item.order, 'date_complete'),
])
I assume in your example that date_created might not exist because you're not always passing the same model class to your loop. The solution may then appear to be to put the logic in the object via the model class definition, and write a 'getrow' method function for any classes you might want to do this to. For classes that have a 'date_created' method, they return that, otherwise return '' or None.
How about
def getattrchain(obj, attrStr, fnArgs=None, defaultResult=''):
try:
for attr in attrStr.split('.'):
obj = getattr(obj,attr)
except AttributeError:
return defaultResult
if callable(obj) and fnArgs is not None:
return obj(*fnArgs)
else:
return obj
for item in django_model_instances:
writer.writerow([getchainattr(item, x, args) for x,args in (
('foo', None),
('bar', None),
('date_created.strftime', [r'%Y/%m/%d']),
('date_complete.strftime', [r'%Y/%m/%d']),
('optional_foreign_key.foo', None),
)
])