Python: The solution I use to get objects from JSON.

main.py

from models import *
import json

def jsonObjectHook(self, jsonObject):
  return SuperSimpleObject(**jsonObject)

data = '{"name": "John Smith", "hometown": {"name": "New York", "id": 123}}'
x = json.loads(data, object_hook=jsonObjectHook)
assert x.name == 'John Smith'
assert x.hometown.name == 'New York'

models.py

from argparse import Namespace

class SuperSimpleObject(Namespace):
  def __getattribute__(self, name):
    """
    Unlike the default implementation, this method returns ``None``
    rather than raise an ``AttributeError`` exception if an attribute
    doesn't exist.
    """
    attrValue = None
    try:
      attrValue = object.__getattribute__(self, name)
    except AttributeError:
      pass
    return attrValue

ObjectsFromJSON.md

Note: This code and documentation are incomplete.

• namedtuple

  • Docs: https://docs.python.org/2/library/collections.html#collections.namedtuple
  • Source: https://hg.python.org/cpython/file/2.7/Lib/collections.py#l305
  • The rename argument is interesting. It replaces key names that meet certain criteria, (repeated, is a reserved word, etc.) with the index number instead. A useful idea for my own classes that allow names that haven't been predefined. However, rather than using an index number, use an altered form of the name, like "_unsafeKey_%s".

• Namespace

  • Docs: https://docs.python.org/2/library/argparse.html#argparse.Namespace
  • Source: https://hg.python.org/cpython/file/2.7/Lib/argparse.py#l1153
  • I chose to use Namespace as the base for my class because I could see how to extend it to allow access to nonexistent attributes to return None instead of throwing an exception.

• Inspriations

  • Namespace solution: http://stackoverflow.com/a/35920523/543738

    I see using Namespace as a weird hack, since this code isn't related to argparse at all.

  • Quick/dirty pickle: http://stackoverflow.com/a/33270983/543738

    I'd like to use some ideas from this to remove dependency on Namespace.

  • https://github.com/jsonpickle/jsonpickle

    Interesting, but it seems to require specifying a backend and passing along an object_hook in order to handle object attributes. It ends up being more code than using only the json module.