code: def to_json(obj):
      
      try:
          return json.dumps(obj, default=lambda obj: {k.lower(): v for k, v in obj.__dict__.items()},
                            sort_keys=False, separators=(',', ':')).encode()
      except Exception as e:
          logger.info("to_json: ", e, obj)
docs: Convert obj to json.  Used mostly to convert the classes in json_span.py until we switch to nested
      dicts (or something better)
  
      :param obj: the object to serialize to json
      :return:  json string