Empty values are not removed by endpoints

[emelois]

I think we've noticed a behavior which is not backward compatible with endpoints v1.

In v1, when the app is deployed (does not happen on the dev server), all empty values (None, (), {}, []) are removed from messages by the endpoints lib.

For instance :

d = {}
d['first'] = 'one'
d['two'] = {}

is transformed in {"first": "one"} in v1 and in {"first": "one", "two": {}} in v2.

Is this by design or is it a bug that will be fixed?

Here is the monkey patch we use:

from protorpc.protojson import MessageJSONEncoder

endpoints_original_method = MessageJSONEncoder.default


def del_none(d):
    """
    Delete keys with the value ``None`` in a dictionary, recursively.

    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4255400/exclude-empty-null-values-from-json-serialization

    This alters the input so you may wish to ``copy`` the dict first.

    Args:
        d: the value to remove empty values from.
    """
    if isinstance(d, dict):
        for key, value in d.items():
            if value in (None, [], (), {}, ):
                del d[key]
            elif isinstance(value, dict):
                del_none(value)
    return d


def default(self, value):
    """
    Monkey patch the SDK method to remove empty values.
    Replicate the behavior of the prod endpoints.

    Args:
        value: Value to get dictionary for.
    """
    return del_none(endpoints_original_method(self, value))

MessageJSONEncoder.default = default

[bradfriedman]

Does this behavior persist if you assign an empty list or tuple? Looking through the code, it appears that the intent is to remove NoneType values and empty lists/tuples, but not empty dicts. However, if the v1 behavior was to remove empty dicts as well, I can continue to look into this. Thanks!

[emelois]

You're right, it seems to be the case only for empty dicts. I confirm that they were removed in v1.

[nilleb]

@bradfriedman anything new on this?

[inklesspen]

Brad is no longer on the team.

[nilleb]

Anyone any news about this? Le mer. 8 nov. 2017 22:33, Rose Davidson <[email protected]> a écrit :

…

Brad is no longer on the team. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#39 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADVmx0Ll_YIlqyeoIFbGdw3DAtedWP2sks5s0h4dgaJpZM4Lspe8> .

[inklesspen]

I have only just seen this issue. I will look into it.

[lcasartelli]

+1 any news on this? I am experiencing the same behavior.