Python's TTP (Template Text Parser) output not a proper dictionary

Question

I maybe doing something wrong but using the Netmiko ouput from a Cisco WLC as input for TTP, the final result is not a real dictionary.

Step 1: This is my script:

with ConnectHandler(**device) as net_connect:
    wlc_hostname = net_connect.find_prompt()[:-1]
    data_to_parse = net_connect.send_command('show run | sec ^wlan.+_([0-9])+_GuestNet')
    print (data_to_parse)

ttp_template = """
<template name="GUEST_wlan_profile">
<group name="{{ wlan_profile }}">
wlan {{ wlan_profile }} {{ wlan_id }} {{ ssid }}
 security wpa psk set-key ascii {{ psk-encrp-method }} {{ guest-psk | ORPHRASE }}
 shutdown  {{ state | set ("disabled") }}
</group>
</template>
"""

parser = ttp(data=data_to_parse, template=ttp_template)
parser.parse()

cisco_wlanTemplates = parser.result(structure="dictionary")
print(json.dumps(cisco_wlanTemplates, sort_keys=True, indent=4, separators=(',', ': ')))

for cisco_wlan in cisco_wlanTemplates:
    print ('WLAN Profile: ',*cisco_wlan)

This is the Netmiko output:

wlan GUEST_local 49 GuestSSID
 assisted-roaming prediction
 client association limit radio 31
 description "Guest with local forwarding"
 no security ft adaptive
 security wpa psk set-key ascii 8 TaIQFQeIOPX^ZCIEbbggNLMiFNGSAYVBecRF
 no security wpa akm dot1x
 security wpa akm psk
 no shutdown

This is the parser output:

{
    "GUEST_wlan_profile": [
        {
            "GUEST_local": {
                "guest-psk": "TaIQFQeIOPX^ZCIEbbggNLMiFNGSAYVBecRF",
                "psk-encrp-method": "8",
                "ssid": "GuestNet",
                "wlan_id": "49"
            }
        }
    ]
}

This is what I get from printing the dictionary items:

WLAN Profile: G U E S T _ w l a n _ p r o f i l e

And this is what I get if I try to get first element from supposed nested dictionary: Code:

for cisco_wlan in cisco_wlanTemplates:
    print ('WLAN Profile: ',cisco_wlan[0])

Output:

WLAN Profile: G

Step 2: Now using this output I got a different result for print:

Code:

ttp_template = """
<template name="GUEST_wlan_profile">
<group name="{{ wlan_profile }}">
wlan {{ wlan_profile }} {{ wlan_id }} {{ ssid }}
<group>
 security wpa psk set-key ascii {{ psk-encrp-method }} {{ guest-psk | ORPHRASE }}
 shutdown  {{ state | set ("disabled") }}
</group>
</group>
</template>
"""

# create parser object and parse data using template:
parser = ttp(data=data_to_parse, template=ttp_template)
parser.parse()

cisco_wlanTemplates = parser.result(format='json')[0]
print(cisco_wlanTemplates)

Output:

[
    {
        "GUEST_local": [
            {
                "ssid": "GuestNet",
                "wlan_id": "49"
            },
            {
                "guest-psk": "TaIQFQeIOPX^ZCIEbbggNLMiFNGSAYVBecRF",
                "psk-encrp-method": "8"
            }
        ]
    }
]

For some reason it seems to me that TTP's ouput creates an initial dictionary with a list of dicts where I don't know how get access to keys and values.

What I want to accomplish with TTP is to access the "guest-psk" to modify it, and in a future modify additional features from the originalNetmiko output, so I need nested dictionaries to cover all diferent "WLAN profiles" setup in the Cisco device. I don't want to use another parser this time nor a regex to accomplish that.

Answer 1

I finally have found where the problem was, and it was the structure of the parser's output should be "flat_list":

cisco_wlanTemplates = parser.result(structure="flat_list")