Python processing nested json - json

Question

I am feeding the following data to my python script as an argument:
source=Blabla||
name=TEST Error in Log - Error: 3345||
item_value={ "Error": 3345, "Message": "Some error occurred", "Status": 1 }
The script:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys, json
data=sys.argv[3]
if 'NOTE: Escalation cancelled' in data:
exit(0)
data=data.split('||')
datadictionary = {}
for item in data:
key, val = item.split("=", 1)
k=key.strip()
v=(((((val.strip())).replace('\n',"<br>")).replace("`", "&lsquo")))
datadictionary[ k ] = v
datajson = json.dumps(datadictionary)
datajson=datajson.encode('utf8')
print(datajson)
It gives the following output:
{"source": "Blabla", "name": "TEST Error in Log - Error: 3345", "item_value": "{ \"Error\": 3345, \"Message\": \"Some error occurred\", \"Status\": 1 }"}
Which is not a proper JSON as item_value is a string rather than a JSON object. How can I generate a nested JSON here?

Answer 1

I figured out that I need to first decode the JSON object first by the following line:
datadictionary['item_value']=json.loads(datadictionary['item_value'])
So the script looks like this:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys, json
data=sys.argv[3]
if 'NOTE: Escalation cancelled' in data:
exit(0)
data=data.split('||')
datadictionary = {}
for item in data:
key, val = item.split("=", 1)
k=key.strip()
v=val.strip().replace('\n',"<br>").replace("`", "&lsquo")
datadictionary[ k ] = v
datadictionary['item_value']=json.loads(datadictionary['item_value'])
datajson = json.dumps(datadictionary)
datajson=datajson.encode('utf8')
print(datajson)
And the output:
{"source": "Blabla", "name": "TEST Error in Log - Error: 3345", "item_value": {"Status": 1, "Message": "Some error occurred", "Error": 3345}}