How can I get ruby's JSON to follow object references like Pry/PP? -

i've stared @ long i'm going in circles...

i'm using rbvmomi gem, , in pry, when display object, recurses down thru structure showing me nested objects - to_json seems "dig down" objects, dump reference others> here's example:

[24] pry(main)> g => [guestnicinfo(    connected: true,    deviceconfigid: 4000,    dynamicproperty: [],    ipaddress: ["10.102.155.146"],    ipconfig: netipconfiginfo(      dynamicproperty: [],      ipaddress: [netipconfiginfoipaddress(         dynamicproperty: [],         ipaddress: "10.102.155.146",         prefixlength: 20,         state: "preferred"       )]    ),    macaddress: "00:50:56:a0:56:9d",    network: "f5_real_vm_ips"  )] [25] pry(main)> g.to_json => "[\"#<rbvmomi::vim::guestnicinfo:0x000000085ecc68>\"]" 

pry apparently uses souped-up pp, , while "pp g" gives me close want, i'm kinda steering hard can toward json don't need custom parser load , manipulate results.

the question - how can json module dig down pp does? , if answer "you can't" - other suggestions achieving goal? i'm not married json - if can data serialized , read later (without writing parse pp output... may exist , should it), it's win.

my "real" goal here slurp bunch of info our vsphere stuff via rbvmomi can network/vm analysis on it, why i'd in nice machine-parsed format. if i'm doing stupid here , there's easier way go - lay on me, i'm not proud. thank time , attention.

update: based on arnie's response, added monkeypatch script:

class rbvmomi::basictypes::dataobject    def to_json(*args)       h = self.props       m = h.merge({ json.create_id => self.class.name })       m.to_json(*args)    end end 

and to_json recurses down nicely. i'll see submitting (or def, really) project.

the .to_json works in recursive manner, default behavior defined as:

converts object string (calling to_s), converts json string, , returns result. fallback, if no special method to_json defined object.

json library has added implementation common classes (check left hand side of this documentation), such array, range, datetime.

for array, to_json first convert elements json object, concat together, , add array mark [/].

for case, need define customized to_json method guestnicinfo, netipconfiginfo , netipconfiginfoipaddress. don't know implementation these 3 classes, wrote example demonstrate how achieve this:

require 'json'  class myclass   attr_accessor :a, :b   def initialize(a, b)     @a =     @b = b   end end  data = [myclass.new(1, "foobar")] puts data.to_json #=> ["#<myclass:0x007fb6626c7260>"]      class myclass   def to_json(*args)     {       json.create_id => self.class.name,       :a => a,       :b => b     }.to_json(*args)   end end  puts data.to_json #=> [{"json_class":"myclass","a":1,"b":"foobar"}]