write data in json format to js file?

Question

Hi,

I am thinking of this idea: 1. Request data from server and write to javascript file in json format using C# 2. When the page loads, the page loads the js file and I can use the data using javascript?

is this a good or bad idea? is there any example somewhere doing that?

thanks

Answer 1

I'd take into account:

• Performance, do you expect the dataset to be small enough to be managed by browsers? How complex are the relationships between your entities?
• Security, how will you secure the data to avoid malicious code execution?

Taking into account these concerns I'd recommend JSON for data interfaces.

Answer 2

JavaScript performance varies by browser, and can go downhill under load, but with that small of a dataset you shouldn't have to worry about that.

If you are using MVC, AJAX and JSON are very easy.

Answer 3

My company does this occasionally when the page is meant to hold only static data. It looks something like this in a .aspx document:

var initialData = <asp:Literal runat="server" id="MyAwesomeLiteral" Text="null" />;

myObject.init(initialData);

This only works if you're confident that your data can't be manipulated to bad ends. If you have IDs, especially sequential ones, encrypt them.

Answer 4

There are better ways. Rather than write to a file, you could create a script tag that points to a server page that generates the script like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="GenerateScript.ashx"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// write some page level code here
</script>

Make sure you test in a few browsers because some may cache the dynamic script. You can also pass parameters to your handler:

<script type="text/javascript" src="GenerateScript.ashx?x=1&y=2"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// write some page level code here
</script>