code: def get_configuration_dict(self, secret_attrs=False):
          
          cd = {'repo_nexml2json': self.repo_nexml2json,
                'number_of_shards': len(self._shards),
                'initialization': self._filepath_args,
                'shards': [],
                }
          for i in self._shards:
              cd['shards'].append(i.get_configuration_dict(secret_attrs=secret_attrs))
          return cd
docs: Type-specific configuration for backward compatibility