Return complex object from an AJAX call

Question

Hi

Environment used: ASP.NET, jQuery

I have the following AJAX call:

var tempVar = JSON.stringify({plotID:currentId});            

$.ajax({
       type: "POST",
       url: "testPage.aspx/getPlotConfig",
       data: tempVar,
       contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
       dataType: "json",
       success: function(msg) {
       $('#xDimLbl').text(msg.xDim);
       $('#bDimLbl').text(msg.bDim);
       } 
});

The code behind has the method getPlotConfig(string plotID) defined as

public static string getPlotConfig(string plotID)
{
      string x = "T1";
      string b = "T2";
      return Json(new { xDim= x, bDim= b });
}

Questions:

1. When I do a build, I get the error: The name 'Json' does not exist in the current context Which namespace is amiss?
2. Along with the two strings x and b, I would like to return a hash table whose key is a string and value is a list of comma separated strings. How do I do that and how to access each key value pair at the client side?

cheers

Answer 1

This could be referring to the Json method used in ASP.NET MVC controller. As your getPlotConfig function is static you cannot use this method. You may take a look at PageMethods. Here's an example:

[WebMethod]  
[ScriptMethod]
public static object getPlotConfig(string plotID)  
{  
    var hash = new Dictionary<string, string>() 
    {
        { "key1", "valueA,valueB" },
        { "key2", "valueC,valueD" },
    };
    var x = "T1";
    var b = "T2";
    return new { xDim = x, bDim = b, hash = hash };
}

And in javascript:

success: function(msg) {
   $('#xDimLbl').text(msg.d.xDim);
   $('#bDimLbl').text(msg.d.bDim);
   for(var key in msg.d.hash) {
       var value = msg.d.hash[key];
       // Do something with key and value...
    }
}