jQuery getJSON basics

Question

My first attempt at it, and the testing function does not seem to work:

$.getJSON('questions.json', function(data) {alert(data);})

I am trying to alert all the contents of the JSON file which is really short. What am I doing wrong? and why am I getting [object Object]

What are you using on the server? What is `questions.json` returning? — StuperUser, May 18 '11 at 17:05
This post answers your question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/323517/is-there-an-equivalent-for-var-dump-php-in-javascript — Mohamed Nuur, May 18 '11 at 17:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '11 at 17:07

JSON is a way of encoding an object as a string so that it can be passed around a network easily. When jQuery receives a string containing JSON data, it deserializes it -- it turns it back into a Javascript object. This object is passed to your success handler -- you're calling it data.

When you try to alert a Javascript object, it will give you [object Object], rather than a readable form.

You should use a Javascript console as provided by your browser to debug data like this, with the console.log method.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '11 at 17:05

2

the value of data is a JSON object, so data itself, when passed via alert(); would dump as [object Object].

Try console.log(data); instead of alert();

For my debugging and testing I use firebug, which has a nice little console tab.

answered May 18 '11 at 17:05

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 18 '11 at 17:06

1

you data is json object, so you are getting [object Object] as alert.

answered May 18 '11 at 17:06

Mujah Maskey

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jQuery getJSON basics

3 Answers3