Passing complex objects to javascript via IScriptControl

Question

I'm playing around with a asp.net page that's using the IScriptControl interface to pass data from the code-behind to the custom javascript object running on the browser.

I'm passing a number of properties via IScriptControl.GetScriptDescriptors(), and they're all working fine, except for one.

That one is a class derived from System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<>. And even that one has been working for me, so long as the elements in the collection were scalars - ints, doubles, and strings. But when I tried to pass a member of a class, it showed up as a null object in the javascript. The class in question is marked [Serializable]. I changed it to a struct, and got the same behavior.

It looks as if the serializer used in IScriptControl does a shallow copy. I need a deep copy.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Well, nobody else is answering this. This really isn't an answer, but the comment field is a little small.

I coded up a stupid little example, which at least looks like it works. What am I missing, what am I not doing that you are?

It causes this to be output to the page:

Sys.Application.add_init(function() {
    $create(NS, {"d1":{"t1":{"j1":1,"s1":{"Capacity":16,"MaxCapacity":2147483647,"Length":1}}}}, null, null, $get("__Page"));
});
Sys.Application.initialize();

And here's the source:

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace Debuggin
{
    public class Test
    {
        public int j1 = 1;
        private int j2 = 2;
        public StringBuilder s1 = new StringBuilder("x");

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return "Test obj";
        }
    }

    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page, IScriptControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }

        protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
        {
            Page.Init += delegate(object sender, EventArgs e_Init)
            {
                if (ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page) == null)
                {
                    ScriptManager sMgr = new ScriptManager();
                    Page.Form.Controls.AddAt(0, sMgr);
                }
            };
            base.OnInit(e);
        }


        protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnPreRender(e);
            ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page).RegisterScriptControl(this);
            ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page).RegisterScriptDescriptors(this);
        }



        #region IScriptControl Members

        public System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ScriptDescriptor> GetScriptDescriptors()
        {
            ScriptControlDescriptor descriptor = new ScriptControlDescriptor("NS", this.ClientID);

            Dictionary<string, object> d = new Dictionary<string, object>();
            d.Add("t1", new Test());
            descriptor.AddProperty("d1", d);

            return new ScriptDescriptor[] { descriptor };

        }

        public System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ScriptReference> GetScriptReferences()
        {
            return new ScriptReference[]{};
        }

        #endregion

    }
}

Answer 2

I would suggest using a 3rd party JSON library. There are several to choose from here.