JSON.NET Deserializing Client Side

Question

In C# I do this from a controller:

public ActionResult GetCompanies()
{
    var vm = new CompanyViewModel { jsonData = JsonConvert.Serialize(_repository.All<Company>()) };

    return View(vm);
}

ViewModel looks like this:

public CompanyViewModel
{
    public string jsonData {get;set}
}

On the client side:

@model MyWebApp.ViewModels.CompanyViewModel

@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/knockout")
<script type="text/javascript">
   var serverData = <!-- Many Things To Do Here -->
</script>

In the part  there a few things you can do to put the server data into a JavaScript Object.

What is the best way to do this, because I have had problems with JSON.parse to do with some characters JSON.NET serializes.

Is just putting the plain data in there okay (it works): var serverData = @Html.Raw(@Model.jsonData)

What other things should/can be done here?

Why send a string if you are trying to parse it into JSON on the client. You are already sending JSON back to the client, just make jsonData a real .NET object on the server that can be serialized to the client. — Mike_G
– Mike_G, Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 18:42
I'm asking what is acceptable to serialize a C# object into a set of JavaScript objects. — Callum Linington
– Callum Linington, Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 11:43

Jedediah · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 19:20:14Z

1

Rather than creating a model just to hold a JSON string, just pass the plain .NET object to your view, and serialize it to JSON there:

In your controller:

public ActionResult GetCompanies()
{
    return View(_repository.All<Comapny>());
}

Then in your view:

<script>
    var companies = @Html.Raw(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Model));
</script>

If you want/need a strongly typed model in your view, you should change your CompanyViewModel to this:

public class CompanyViewModel
{
    public IList<Company> Companies {get; set;}
    //Or whatever sort of collection your repository returns
}

And in your controller

public ActionResult GetCompanies()
{
    var vm = new CompanyViewModel { Companies = _repository.All<Company>() };
    return View(vm);
}

Then in your view:

@model MyWebApp.ViewModels.CompanyViewModel
<script>
    var companies = @Html.Raw(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Model.Companies));
</script>

edited Jun 26, 2014 at 19:20

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 19:15

Jedediah

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1 Comment

Callum Linington Over a year ago

So you are saying that you can just set a variable to converted JSON then?

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