JSON deserialisation for the 'Model.ModelReference' is not working.

[dk-emag]

I use this example code to create a ModelReference object for a submodel. Then I serialise the object as a JSON string.
Everything works so far.
However, when I try to deserialise the JSON string back into an object, the result is a dictionary, not a ModelReference object.

submodel = model.Submodel(id_="http://example.com/submodel/1", id_short="DemoSubmodel")
submodel_ref = model.ModelReference.from_referable(submodel)
data_string = json.dumps(submodel_ref, cls=basyx.aas.adapter.json.AASToJsonEncoder)
reference = json.loads(data_string, cls=basyx.aas.adapter.json.AASFromJsonDecoder)

For example, if I serialise and deserialise ModelReferences as part of a shell, everything works fine.
It seems that the issue only occurs with stand-alone ModelReferences.

[s-heppner]

Thank you for pointing this out!
You are correct, ModelReferences currently can't be serialized as stand-alone objects.

However, when I try to deserialise the JSON string back into an object, the result is a dictionary, not a ModelReference object.

What you are seeing here is the json.dumps using the Python internal logic, transforming the Python class into a dictionary.

I'm currently unsure, if this is a bug or expected behavior, though. To my understanding, a ModelReference is a AAS-model-internal reference to another object within the same environment. Serializing it without the remaining model therefore is not really sensible and would indicate, that it should be an ExternalReference instead.

Please let me know, if I'm missing something, though!