Add datetime support to eel websockets.

[becurrie]

Added the ability to just coerce datetime objects directly into their __str__ output when being sent down the pipe through a web-socket.

The main use case for this (at least for my current usage of Eel) is as follows:

• I'm using different models to store sets of data that flow between the frontend and backend.
• One of the main pieces of functionality for my application is allowing real-time updates and the inclusion of counters and stopwatches (that start from, or countdown to) a datetime object.
• Returning a dictionary that contains raw datetime objects currently just coerces them to a None type value or null when viewed in the JavaScript itself.

Now, I could just coerce my datetime objects into strings directly before sending them down the pipe to be sent through a web-socket, but this would then mean that I need to convert them back to datetime objects when I'm dealing with them back in Python.

I think it's more worthwhile to just convert datetimes into strings by default when they're encountered by the jsn.dumps functionality within Eel.

[samuelhwilliams]

Hi @becurrie,

Thanks for the PR - glad you're using Eel and want to contribute to its development. 🎉

I think it's a fair idea to allow more data types to be serialized. That said, I think we might want to consider the more general case for users transferring data/objects between the Python and JS sides. With that in mind, I think we might want to consider letting Eel take in custom JSONEncoder/Decoders, which are used instead of the default, so that developers can pass whatever they want between Python and JS - not just basic datatypes and, with your proposed change, datetimes.

Does that make sense? Do you want to take a shot at implementing this?

[becurrie]

Hi @becurrie,

Thanks for the PR - glad you're using Eel and want to contribute to its development. 🎉

I think it's a fair idea to allow more data types to be serialized. That said, I think we might want to consider the more general case for users transferring data/objects between the Python and JS sides. With that in mind, I think we might want to consider letting Eel take in custom JSONEncoder/Decoders, which are used instead of the default, so that developers can pass whatever they want between Python and JS - not just basic datatypes and, with your proposed change, datetimes.

Does that make sense? Do you want to take a shot at implementing this?

Yeah that makes perfect sense and general is always better, I can take a shot at it when I get some more time over the next month or so :)