Stringify timestamp object

Question

How can i JSON.stringify the following data-structure?

var Records = {
    1357775376232: {
        pageX: 0,
        pageY: 0,
        scrollLeft: 0,
        scrollTop: 0,
        target: #document,
        type: null,
        value: undefined
    },
    1357775376243: {
        pageX: 69,
        pageY: 10,
        scrollLeft: 0,
        scrollTop: 0,
        target: <a>,
        type: "click",
        value: ""
    }
    // ...etc...
};

@Pointy nope, i get `Uncaught TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON ` And, [that](http://stackoverflow.com/a/9382383/1250044) does not help either... — yckart, Jan 09 '13 at 23:57
Well that means you've got a non-serializable object. If you would post what **exactly** the object looks like without the "... etc ..." part then somebody could possibly help. — Pointy, Jan 09 '13 at 23:58
What's `#document` and ``? If they're DOM node references, they can't be serialized. — bfavaretto, Jan 10 '13 at 00:00
@bfavaretto Yeah, you're right... are there, any workarounds for that? — yckart, Jan 10 '13 at 00:03

hunterloftis · Answer 1 · 2013-01-10T06:56:44.337

4

It looks like this object contains references to document and to an a tag. You won't be able to serialize it until you remove such references.

A simple solution is:

var arrayWithRefs = [...];
var arrayWithout = [];

for (var i = 0; i < arrayWithRefs.length; i++) {
  arrayWithout[i] = {
    safeProperty: arrayWithRefs[i].safeProperty;
    // copy whatever you want, omitting document references
  };
}

var serialized = JSON.stringify(arrayWithout);

And of course there are libraries that can help you to pluck out just the properties you want. I would recommend underscore (general purpose) or cryo (exactly what you're attempting):

edited Jan 10 '13 at 06:56

answered Jan 10 '13 at 00:03

hunterloftis

13,386
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Full-disclosure, I'm the author of this library: https://github.com/hunterloftis/cryo - 'JSON on steroids' - it lets you do things like stringify around DOM elements without problems. Drop-in replacement for JSON.stringify/JSON.parse with lots of unit tests. – hunterloftis Jan 10 '13 at 01:10

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 14 '13 at 20:05

0

Instead of using a plain object, use the XPath for the elements.

answered Jan 14 '13 at 20:05

yckart

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Stringify timestamp object

2 Answers2