Grails JSONBuilder

I finally figured out how to do this using a JSONBuilder, here’s the code

import grails.web.*

class JSONSerializer {

    def target

    String getJSON() {

        Closure jsonFormat = {   

            object = {
                // Set the delegate of buildJSON to ensure that missing methods called thereby are routed to the JSONBuilder
                buildJSON.delegate = delegate
                buildJSON(target)
            }
        }        

        def json = new JSONBuilder().build(jsonFormat)
        return json.toString(true)
    }

    private buildJSON = {obj ->

        obj.properties.each {propName, propValue ->

            if (!['class', 'metaClass'].contains(propName)) {

                if (isSimple(propValue)) {
                    // It seems "propName = propValue" doesn't work when propName is dynamic so we need to
                    // set the property on the builder using this syntax instead
                    setProperty(propName, propValue)
                } else {

                    // create a nested JSON object and recursively call this function to serialize it
                    Closure nestedObject = {
                        buildJSON(propValue)
                    }
                    setProperty(propName, nestedObject)
                }
            }
        }
    }

   /**
     * A simple object is one that can be set directly as the value of a JSON property, examples include strings,
     * numbers, booleans, etc.
     *
     * @param propValue
     * @return
     */
    private boolean isSimple(propValue) {
        // This is a bit simplistic as an object might very well be Serializable but have properties that we want
        // to render in JSON as a nested object. If we run into this issue, replace the test below with an test
        // for whether propValue is an instanceof Number, String, Boolean, Char, etc.
        propValue instanceof Serializable || propValue == null
    }
}

You can test this by pasting the code above along with the following into the grails console

// Define a class we'll use to test the builder
class Complex {
    String name
    def nest2 =  new Expando(p1: 'val1', p2: 'val2')
    def nest1 =  new Expando(p1: 'val1', p2: 'val2')
}

// test the class
new JSONSerializer(target: new Complex()).getJSON()

It should generate the following output which stores the serialized instance of Complex as the value of the object property:

{"object": {
   "nest2": {
      "p2": "val2",
      "p1": "val1"
   },
   "nest1": {
      "p2": "val2",
      "p1": "val1"
   },
   "name": null
}}