Convert Param Object to PyDictionary

[Samuel_Weston]

I'm trying to create a template that opens a popup with a dynamic parameter set. The issue I've run into is that the system.perspective.openPopup function only accepts a dictionary to define the parameters, but I want to use an object in my template params called 'PopupParams'.

Essentially I need to convert 'PopupParams' to a dictionary, right now I accomplish that by encoding then decoding the object as a json string, removing the object wrapper.

	PopupParams = self.view.params.PopupParams
	ParamString = system.util.jsonEncode(PopupParams)
	ParamDict = system.util.jsonDecode(ParamString)
	system.perspective.openPopup(self.view.params.PopupID, self.view.params.PopupPath, params = ParamDict)

It works fine, but it's very gross, is there a better solution?

[pascal.fragnoud]

Where and how is the object defined ? What's its exact type ?

[PGriffith]

dict(self.view.params.PopupParams) might work; if it's not a deep dictionary.

If you do need a deep copy, you could try the approaches mentioned here:

Copy dictionary and modify it without affecting the original

As @bkarabinchak.psi pointed out even though the structure “looks” like a dict it isn’t actually a dict. Actually the type of a perspective property when accessed from a script is:com.inductiveautomation.perspective.gateway.script.PropertyTreeScriptWrapper.ObjectWrapper. Thus deepcopy chokes when it runs into an object that it doesn’t know how to handle. If you need a true deepcopy, then you have couple of options. Write a function which recursively loops through the structure and correctl…

Or you could use Ignition Extensions' system.util.deepCopy.

[Samuel_Weston]

Thanks, I think creating my own recursive deep copy function is the way to go, better visibility to other developers in my team. Unfortunately, we're unable to use community extensions as a restriction by our clients.

[PGriffith]

Actually, if you're going that way I kinda prefer @justin.brzozoski's duck-typing approach:

Function to convert json string or python dict into ObjectWrapper

Forcing each to the expected type while traversing makes a deep copy: def sanitize_tree(element): if hasattr(element, '__iter__'): if hasattr(element, 'keys'): return dict((k, sanitize_tree(element[k])) for k in element.keys()) else: return list(sanitize_tree(x) for x in element) return element EDIT: Got rid of the unnecessary zip() and used only one keys() iterator instead of two.

[Samuel_Weston]

I remember seeing that last week although I couldn't quite wrap my head around it then, @pascal.fragnoud 's explanation in the other thread helped to clear up the confusion. Thanks mate.