added helper function to convert spockspaces to dict that is outside of the SpockBulder object -- lol forgoat to add file

Author: ncilfone

spock/helpers.py

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+"""Helper functions for Spock"""
+
+from typing import Dict, List, Optional, Tuple, Union
+
+from spock.backend.saver import AttrSaver
+from spock.backend.wrappers import Spockspace
+from spock.exceptions import _SpockValueError
+from spock.utils import _C, _is_spock_instance
+
+
+def to_dict(
+    objs: Union[_C, List[_C], Tuple[_C, ...]], saver: Optional[AttrSaver] = AttrSaver()
+) -> Dict[str, Dict]:
+    """Converts spock classes from a Spockspace into their dictionary representations
+
+    Args:
+        objs: single spock class or an iterable of spock classes
+        saver: optional saver class object
+
+    Returns:
+        dictionary where the class names are keys and the values are the dictionary
+        representations
+    """
+    if isinstance(objs, (List, Tuple)):
+        obj_dict = {}
+        for val in objs:
+            if not _is_spock_instance(val):
+                raise _SpockValueError(
+                    f"Object is not a @spock decorated class object -- "
+                    f"currently `{type(val)}`"
+                )
+            obj_dict.update({type(val).__name__: val})
+    elif _is_spock_instance(objs):
+        obj_dict = {type(objs).__name__: objs}
+    else:
+        raise _SpockValueError(
+            f"Object is not a @spock decorated class object -- "
+            f"currently `{type(objs)}`"
+        )
+    return saver.dict_payload(Spockspace(**obj_dict))