Make to_dict dynamic

readthedocs/misc/v2-migration-guide.rst

@@ -330,6 +330,17 @@ want to define new attributes.
 
 This also means that the updates from ``events.Raw`` **no longer have** ``update._entities``.
 
+``tlobject.to_dict()`` has changed and is now generated dynamically based on the ``__slots__`.
+This may incur a small performance hit (but you shouldn't really be using ``.to_dict()`` when
+you can just use attribute access and ``getattr``). In general, this should handle ill-defined
+objects more gracefully (for instance, those where you're using a ``tuple`` and not a ``list``
+or using a list somewhere it shouldn't be), and have no other observable effects. As an extra
+benefit, this slightly cuts down on the amount of bloat.
+
+In ``tlobject.to_dict()``, the special ``_`` key is now also contains the module (so you can
+actually distinguish between equally-named classes). If you want the old behaviour, use
+``tlobject.__class__.__name__` instead (and add ``Request`` for functions).
+
 // TODO this definitely generated files mapping from the original name to this new one...
 // TODO what's the alternative to update._entities? and update._client??
 

telethon/_misc/tlobject.py

@@ -171,7 +171,22 @@ class TLObject:
         return TLObject.pretty_format(self, indent=0)
 
     def to_dict(self):
-        raise NotImplementedError
+        res = {}
+        pre = ('', 'fn.')[isinstance(self, TLRequest)]
+        mod = self.__class__.__module__[self.__class__.__module__.rfind('.') + 1:]
+        if mod in ('_tl', 'fn'):
+            res['_'] = f'{pre}{self.__class__.__name__}'
+        else:
+            res['_'] = f'{pre}{mod}.{self.__class__.__name__}'
+
+        for slot in self.__slots__:
+            attr = getattr(self, slot)
+            if isinstance(attr, list):
+                res[slot] = [val.to_dict() if hasattr(val, 'to_dict') else val for val in attr]
+            else:
+                res[slot] = attr.to_dict() if hasattr(attr, 'to_dict') else attr
+
+        return res
 
     def to_json(self, fp=None, default=_json_default, **kwargs):
         """

telethon_generator/generators/tlobject.py

@@ -178,7 +178,6 @@ def _write_source_code(tlobject, kind, builder, type_constructors):
     """
     _write_class_init(tlobject, kind, type_constructors, builder)
     _write_resolve(tlobject, builder)
-    _write_to_dict(tlobject, builder)
     _write_to_bytes(tlobject, builder)
     _write_from_reader(tlobject, builder)
     _write_read_result(tlobject, builder)
@@ -301,42 +300,6 @@ def _write_resolve(tlobject, builder):
         builder.end_block()
 
 
-def _write_to_dict(tlobject, builder):
-    builder.writeln('def to_dict(self):')
-    builder.writeln('return {')
-    builder.current_indent += 1
-
-    builder.write("'_': '{}'", tlobject.class_name)
-    for arg in tlobject.real_args:
-        builder.writeln(',')
-        builder.write("'{}': ", arg.name)
-        if arg.type in BASE_TYPES:
-            if arg.is_vector:
-                builder.write('[] if self.{0} is None else self.{0}[:]',
-                              arg.name)
-            else:
-                builder.write('self.{}', arg.name)
-        else:
-            if arg.is_vector:
-                builder.write(
-                    '[] if self.{0} is None else [x.to_dict() '
-                    'if isinstance(x, TLObject) else x for x in self.{0}]',
-                    arg.name
-                )
-            else:
-                builder.write(
-                    'self.{0}.to_dict() '
-                    'if isinstance(self.{0}, TLObject) else self.{0}',
-                    arg.name
-                )
-
-    builder.writeln()
-    builder.current_indent -= 1
-    builder.writeln("}")
-
-    builder.end_block()
-
-
 def _write_to_bytes(tlobject, builder):
     builder.writeln('def _bytes(self):')