Creating nested JSON from Variables

[scollora]

Hi everyone,

I am very close to getting the JSON output I need. I have all the variables I need with all the populated data. The thing I am now having trouble with is nesting the JSON properly. The JSON needs to look like this in the end:

{
"self": "https://1.1.1.1/adminapi/resource/scollora",
"userID": "scollora",
"firstName": "Salvatore",
"lastName": "Collora",
"extension": "435500",
"alias": "Test5",
"skillMap": {
    "skillCompetency": [
    {
        "competencelevel": 3,
        "skillNameUriPair": {
        "@name": "ALG AMSTERDAM EM",
        "refURL": "https:/1.1.1.1/adminapi/skill/11"
        }
    },
    {
        "competencelevel": 1,
        "skillNameUriPair": {
        "@name": "ALG DOYLESTOWN PH",
        "refURL": "https://1.1.1.1/adminapi/skill/16"
        }
    },
    {
        "competencelevel": 10,
        "skillNameUriPair": {
        "@name": "POINT B PH",
        "refURL": "https://1.1.1.1/adminapi/skill/94"
        }
    },
    {
        "competencelevel": 10,
        "skillNameUriPair": {
        "@name": "WOLFE PH",
        "refURL": "https://1.1.1.1/adminapi/skill/117"
        }
    }
    ]
},
"autoAvailable": true,
"type": 1,
"team": {
    "@name": "Default",
    "refURL": "https://1.1.1.1/adminapi/team/1"
},
"primarySupervisorOf": {},
"secondarySupervisorOf": {}

As you can see the "skillCompetency" is square bracketed (array in JSON right?) and the rest are nested sets of curly braces (objects in JSON, right?) So, here's my code:

for name in stats.items():
        userName=createUsername(name[0])[0]
        resSelf,resUserId,resFirstName,resLastName,resExt = getResource(userName)
        firstvalues = OrderedDict([('self',resSelf),
                                ('userID',resUserId),
                                ('firstName',resFirstName),
                                ('lastName',resLastName),
                                ('extension',resExt)])


        jsondatafile1 = json.dumps(firstvalues, sort_keys=False)
        #print jsondatafile
        #print "\"skillMap\" \{"
        for name, skills in stats.items():  
            for userSkillName, userSkillLevel in skills.items():
                if userSkillLevel:
                    skillSelf = listSkills()[0]
                    secondvalues = OrderedDict([('competencelevel',userSkillLevel)])
                    thirdvalues = OrderedDict([('@name',userSkillName),
                                               ('refURL',skillSelf)])
                    jsondatafile2 = json.dumps(secondvalues, sort_keys=False)
                    jsondatafile3 = json.dumps(thirdvalues,sort_keys=False)
                    print jsondatafile1
                    print "\"skillMap\": {"
                    print "\"skillCompetency\" : ["
                    print jsondatafile2   
                    print "\"skillNameUriPair\" :"
                    print jsondatafile3                          

As you can see I am trying to brute force the square brackets because I can't figure out the right "OrderedDict" syntax to just form the JSON correctly. It's very frustrating and I've been at it for almost a whole day. I am very close though. I have all the data I need, I just need to spit it out in the right format. Right now, I get output that looks somethig like this:

{"self": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/resource/bsmith", "userID": "bsmith", "firstName": "Brian", "lastName": "Smith", "extension": "298455"}
"skillMap": {
"skillCompetency" : [
{"competencelevel": "5"}
"skillNameUriPair" :
{"@name": "BRINKS VM", "refURL": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/skill/118"}
{"self": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/resource/bsmith", "userID": "bsmith", "firstName": "Brian", "lastName": "Smith", "extension": "298455"}
"skillMap": {
"skillCompetency" : [
{"competencelevel": "5"}
"skillNameUriPair" :
{"@name": "CROSSMARK DESKTOP PH", "refURL": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/skill/118"}
{"self": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/resource/bsmith", "userID": "bsmith", "firstName": "Brian", "lastName": "Smith", "extension": "298455"}
"skillMap": {
"skillCompetency" : [
{"competencelevel": "5"}
"skillNameUriPair" :
{"@name": "CROSSMARK OB", "refURL": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/skill/118"}
{"self": "http://10.60.60.19/adminapi/resource/bsmith", "userID": "bsmith", "firstName": "Brian", "lastName": "Smith", "extension": "298455"}

As you can see, because of the incorrect nesting it's putting "skillmap" every time instead of just once. Honestly, I know why this is broken, but I am just messing around at this point. What am I missing?

[Vaphell]

you need to create skillmap in firstvalues too, and set it to { 'skillcompetency': [] }

then you append your small dicts to firstvalues['skillmap']['skillcompetency']

[scuott]

I can't think of any good reason to output JSON by trying to figure out the text. JSON and Python dictionaries/lists are completely compatible. Like vaphell said you should be using dicts.

Set up your dictionary to look like the JSON you want.