JSON and ASP.NET MVC

Question

How do you return a serialized JSON object to the client side using ASP.NET MVC via an AJAX call?

Answer 1

From the controller you can just return a JsonResult:

public ActionResult MyAction()
{
    ... // Populate myObject
    return new JsonResult{ Data = myObject };
}

The form of the Ajax call will depend on which library you're using, of course. Using jQuery it would be something like:

$.getJSON("/controllerName/MyAction", callbackFunction);

where the callbackFunction takes a parameter which is the data from the XHR request.

Answer 2

Depending on your syntax preferences, the following also works:

public ActionResult MyAction()
{
    return Json(new {Data = myObject});
}