Sending JSON data containing a JavaScript function

Question

I have an object, example:

var object = { name: "lalala", alert: function(){ alert(this.name)} }

I want send this to my server (nodejs+express) as a JSON, but I am getting this parser error, how I can do this?

JSON example:

{ "name": "lalala", "alert": "function"(){ "alert"("this.name") } }

Answer 1

What you have there is not a valid JSON object. You can't have a function inside of a JSON. You are working with a JavaScript Object instead. Take a look at the JSON spec to learn exactly what is valid for JSON.

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If you really wanted to pass that data to your server, you would have to convert the value to a string and then eval (shudder) it at a later stage to get back the underlying function.

Answer 2

This totally odd and not proper way of doing a JSON

You can't have a function inside a JSON object,

That why you got parser error...

Answer 3

Don't do it that way. Send the value of the alert in the json, and then run the alert function when the value is received at the other end.

var object = { name: "lalala", alert: "lalala"}

alert(object.alert);

Edit: In fact all you would need is

var object = { name: "lalala"}

When response received:

alert(object.name);

Answer 4

You could use the following trick.

var c = { "s" : "sss", "alert" : "alert(c.s)"}
eval(c.alert);

You will get your alert. However it's not going to fly with something like:

eval("function(){alert(c.s);}")