Expected Behavior

If I set the value of a GenericProperty to a str, then read it back from datastore, the value should still always be a str. The value I read back should equal the value I put in.

Actual Behavior

If I set a GenericProperty to the string 'oops', then read it back from datastore, the value is now b'oops', so it is not equal to the value I put in the property.
If I set a GenericProperty to the string 'oøps', then read it back from datastore, the value is still 'oøps'. Apparently we are deciding to do different behavior depending on the contents of the string.

The same thing happens in appengine Python 2 incidentally, but it was not a big problem in practice because in Python 2, 'oops' == u'oops' was True. In Python 3 it is a problem :)

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

class Oops(ndb.Model):
    generic_prop = ndb.GenericProperty()
    string_prop = ndb.StringProperty()

oops = Oops(generic_prop="oøps", string_prop="oøps")
assert "oøps" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops.put()
assert "oøps" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops = oops.key.get()
assert "oøps" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops = oops.key.get(use_cache=False)
assert oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop  # <- Succeeds: both properties are still "oøps"

oops = Oops(generic_prop="oops", string_prop="oops")
assert "oops" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops.put()
assert "oops" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops = oops.key.get()
assert "oops" == oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop
oops = oops.key.get(use_cache=False)
assert oops.generic_prop == oops.string_prop  # <- Fails, because now generic_prop is b'oops'

Specifications

• Version: appengine-python-standard 1.1.3, Python 3.11.4
• Platform: MacOS