ENH: replace `isinstance` with try-except
ENH: replace `isinstance` with try-except

because `basestring` is admissible in Python 2,
but in Python 3 there is no `basestring`.
The function `json.loads` applies its own type checking.

necozay/tulip-control,necozay/tulip-control,necozay/tulip-control,necozay/tulip-control,tulip-control/tulip-control,necozay/tulip-control,tulip-control/tulip-control,tulip-control/tulip-control,tulip-control/tulip-control