docs: def path_to_reference(path):
      """Convert an object path reference to a reference."""
  
      # By default JSON decodes strings as unicode. The Python __import__ does
      # not like that choice. So we'll just cast all function paths to a string.
      # NOTE: that there is no corresponding unit test for the classmethod
      # version of this problem.  It only impacts importing modules.
      path = str(path)
  
      if '.' not in path:
          try:
              return globals()["__builtins__"][path]
          except KeyError:
              try:
                  return getattr(globals()["__builtins__"], path)
              except AttributeError:
                  pass
  
          try:
              return globals()[path]
          except KeyError:
              pass
  
          raise errors.BadObjectPathError(
              'Unable to find function "%s".' % (path,))
  
      module_path, function_name = path.rsplit('.', 1)
  
      try:
          module = __import__(name=module_path,
                              fromlist=[function_name])
      except ImportError:
          module_path, class_name = module_path.rsplit('.', 1)
  
          module = __import__(name=module_path, fromlist=[class_name])
          module = getattr(module, class_name)
  
      try:
          return getattr(module, function_name)
      except AttributeError:
          raise errors.BadObjectPathError(
              'Unable to find function "%s".' % (path,))