test.py

def _mturk_flatten(obj):
    if isinstance(obj, basestring):
        return {"": obj}
    elif isinstance(obj, collections.Mapping):
        iterable = obj.items()
    elif isinstance(obj, collections.Iterable):
        iterable = enumerate(obj)
    else:
        return {"": obj}
        
    rv = {}
    for key, value in iterable:
        rv.update({"{}.{}".format(key, inner_key): inner_value
                   for inner_key, inner_value in mturk_flatten(value).items()})
    return rv
    
def mturk_flatten(obj):
    return {key[:-1]: value for key, value in _mturk_flatten(obj).items()}