Return the object's state. Most classes should avoid overiding this method. This method would normally be overidden to exclude some data from the persistent store. The implementation provided here provides a naming convention that provides for excluding some data by using attribute names beginning with '_v_'.
It is tempting to overide this method to provide better performance. The default implementation returns a dictionary. Performance (execution and space) could be improved by returning a more compact data structure, such as a tuple, however, in our experience, this introduces a significant maintenance headache. We almost never do this anymore.
Returns
PyObject
The object's state, usually a dictionary.
Volatile
Any attribute that has a name starting with �_v_� is considered to be �volatile�. Setting volatile attributes does not cause a persistent object to change from the up-to-date state to the changed state or to be saved. Volatile attributes are not included in the state returned by the default __getstate__ method.