Can I store a python dictionary in google's BigTable datastore without serializing it explicitly?

Question

I have a python dictionary that I would like to store in Google\'s BigTable datastore (it is an attribute in a db.Model class).

Is there an easy way to do t

Answer 1

I think you cannot avoid serializing your objects.

I would define the following model to store each key, value pair:

class DictModel(db.Model):
    value = db.TextProperty()

To save to the datastore I'd use:

def set_value(key, value):
    key = DictModel(value=pickle.dumps(value), key_name=key)
    key.save()
    return key

And to retrieve data:

def get_value(key):
    return pickle.loads(DictModel.get_by_key_name(key).value)