in python you can turn nested dictionaries and other data structures into json, but only if the data structures doesn't include circular references. I use that a lot.

something like

  >>> d = { "a":1, "b":[1,2,3] }
  >>> import json
  >>> print( json.dumps(d, indent=2) )
  {
    "a": 1,
    "b": [
      1,
      2,
      3,
    ]
  }