21

I've been working on this for 3 hours and have given up. I am simply trying to send data to an ASP.NET WebMethod, using jQuery. The data is basically a bunch of key/value pairs. So I've tried to create an array and adding the pairs to that array.

My WebMethod (aspx.cs) looks like this (this may be wrong for what I'm building in JavaScript, I just don't know): 

[WebMethod]
public static string SaveRecord(List<object> items)
{
    ...
}

Here is my sample JavaScript:

var items = new Array;

var data1 = { compId: "1", formId: "531" };
var data2 = { compId: "2", formId: "77" };
var data3 = { compId: "3", formId: "99" };
var data4 = { status: "2", statusId: "8" };
var data5 = { name: "Value", value: "myValue" };

items[0] = data1;
items[1] = data2;
items[2] = data3;
items[3] = data4;
items[4] = data5;

Here is my jQuery AJAX call:

var options = {
    error: function(msg) {
        alert(msg.d);
    },
    type: "POST",
    url: "PackageList.aspx/SaveRecord",
    data: { 'items': items },
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json",
    async: false,
    success: function(response) {
        var results = response.d;
    }
};
jQuery.ajax(options);

I get the error:

Invalid JSON primitive: items.

So, if I do this:

var DTO = { 'items': items };

and set the data parameter like this: 

data: JSON.stringify(DTO)

Then I get this error:

Cannot convert object of type \u0027System.String\u0027 to type \u0027System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.Object]\u0027
phwt
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29er
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  • Change your web method to accept a plain old Object, then take a look at exactly what the object is, and cast and process it in the web method. – Cᴏʀʏ Jul 18 '09 at 02:01
  • Question though, you're using webmethods, but not using the JavaScript proxy class that is generated automatically for you? – Cᴏʀʏ Jul 18 '09 at 02:02
  • thanks Cory, i did initially change hte web method to accept a plain object, which helped me figure out what to expect. thanks! – 29er Jul 20 '09 at 04:21

6 Answers6

46

In your example, it should work if your data parameter is:

data: "{'items':" + JSON.stringify(items) + "}"

Keep in mind that you need to send a JSON string to ASP.NET AJAX. If you specify an actual JSON object as jQuery's data parameter, it will serialize it as &k=v?k=v pairs instead.

It looks like you've read it already, but take another look at my example of using a JavaScript DTO with jQuery, JSON.stringify, and ASP.NET AJAX. It covers everything you need to make this work.

Note: You should never use JavaScriptSerializer to manually deserialize JSON in a "ScriptService" (as suggested by someone else). It automatically does this for you, based on the specified types of the parameters to your method. If you find yourself doing that, you are doing it wrong.

Dave Ward
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9

When using AJAX.NET I always make the input parameter just a plain old object and then use the javascript deserializer to covert it to whatever type I want. At least that way you can debug and see what type of object the web method in is recieving.

You need to convert your object to a string when using jQuery

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <asp:ScriptManager ID="sm" runat="server" EnablePageMethods="true">
            <Scripts>
                <asp:ScriptReference Path="~/js/jquery.js" />
            </Scripts>
        </asp:ScriptManager>
        <div></div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
    var items = [{ compId: "1", formId: "531" },
        { compId: "2", formId: "77" },
        { compId: "3", formId: "99" },
        { status: "2", statusId: "8" },
        { name: "Value", value: "myValue"}];

        //Using Ajax.Net Method
        PageMethods.SubmitItems(items,
            function(response) { var results = response.d; },
            function(msg) { alert(msg.d) },
            null);

        //using jQuery ajax Method
        var options = { error: function(msg) { alert(msg.d); },
                        type: "POST", url: "WebForm1.aspx/SubmitItems",
                        data: {"items":items.toString()}, // array to string fixes it *
                        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                        dataType: "json",
                        async: false, 
                        success: function(response) { var results = response.d; } }; 
        jQuery.ajax(options);
</script>

And the Code Behind

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Services;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
using System.Web.Script.Services;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace CustomEquip
{
    [ScriptService]
    public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }
        [WebMethod]
        public static void SubmitItems(object items)
        {
            //break point here
            List<object> lstItems = new JavaScriptSerializer().ConvertToType<List<object>>(items);
        }
    }
}
Your Friend Ken
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  • Kenneth, i just tried the jquery version exactly as you coded it above and still got the error: Invalid JSON primitive: items. "Message":"Invalid JSON primitive: item.","StackTrace":" at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializePrimitiveObject()\r\n at ..... something is still wrong with that array, but can't figure it out! – 29er Jul 20 '09 at 02:41
  • Kenneth, I tried your PageMethods version and this worked fine. Thanks very much. I may just go this route if i can't figure out the jQuery solution. much appreciated. – 29er Jul 20 '09 at 02:53
  • I hope the object change is just a debugging tool...until you get the JSON conversions working right. – Steve Duitsman Jul 25 '11 at 21:53
  • You really shouldn't use a plain object, even if it's easier at first. – Tacroy Mar 29 '12 at 18:57
5

The following is a code snippet from our project - I had trouble with not wrapping the object as a string and also with Date values - hopefully this helps someone:

        // our JSON data has to be a STRING - need to send a JSON string to ASP.NET AJAX. 
        // if we specify an actual JSON object as jQuery's data parameter, it will serialize it as ?k=v&k=v pairs instead
        // we must also wrap the object we are sending with the name of the parameter on the server side – in this case, "invoiceLine"
        var jsonString = "{\"invoiceLine\":" + JSON.stringify(selectedInvoiceLine) + "}";

        // reformat the Date values so they are deserialized properly by ASP.NET JSON Deserializer            
        jsonString = jsonString.replace(/\/Date\((-?[0-9]+)\)\//g, "\\/Date($1)\\/");

        $.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: "InvoiceDetails.aspx/SaveInvoiceLineItem",
            data: jsonString,
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            dataType: "json"
        });

The server method signature looks like this:

    [WebMethod]
    public static void SaveInvoiceLineItem(InvoiceLineBO invoiceLine)
    {
AVH
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3

Decorate your [WebMethod] with another attribute:

[ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)]

I believe this is in System.Web.Services.Scripting...

Dave Markle
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    I think the problem is not that server is not able to send JSON to the client, problem is about server not able to de-serialize the incoming JSON. – SolutionYogi Jul 17 '09 at 23:38
1

This is the way you define your data (JSON)

data: { 'items': items },

and the this the way it should be

data: '{ items: " '+items +' "}',

basically you are serializing the parameter.

Jesse
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maxspan
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1

see link http://www.andrewrowland.com/article/display/consume-dot-net-web-service-with-jquery

bkaid
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diwakar
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