def METHOD_NAME(self, outfile, sparse=True):
    """
    save an Oil object as JSON to the passed in file
    it can be either a path or a writable open file object
    NOTE: this could be in the decorator -- but we only really need it
          for a full record.
    """
    try:
        json.dump(self.py_json(sparse=sparse), outfile)
    except AttributeError:
        # must not be an open file-like object
        with open(outfile, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as outfile:
            json.dump(self.py_json(sparse=sparse), outfile, indent=4)
    return None