Question

I am able to parse JSON that returns simple data, with JSON.parse but I am having trouble with data that returns objects, dates, strings, etc..

var theData=JSON.parse(theData);

Something like this JSON.parse returns [Object] object back with no data at all (I can see the data is being successfully returned because it returns all the data as a string if I have JSON.parse turned off).

{
"AppName": "TheName",
"AppUrl": "https:\/\/app\/icons\/unknown.png",
"aGUID": "45c055d2-2edc-d4444"."DateCreated": "8\/23\/2012 11:04AM", {
    "ID": "yser123",
    Name ":" User "}
    }

What is the best way to go about parsing this data in javascript(I am not able to use jquery)?

Note: I had wrote the JSON assume its valid

Here is the code I am using to retreive the data..

var xhReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhReq.open("POST", "ClientService.svc/REST/GetDetail", false);
xhReq.send(null);
var serverResponse = xhReq.responseText;
alert(serverResponse);
return serverResponse;

Answer 1

First and foremost, don’t use synchronous XHR. Rewrite your JavaScript to be asynchronous.

function getDetail(cb) {
    var xhReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhReq.open("POST", "ClientService.svc/REST/GetDetail", true);
    xhReq.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (xhReq.readyState == 4) cb(xhReq.responseText);
    }
    xhReq.send(null);
}

// to call:

getDetail(function(data) {
    JSON.parse(data);
}

Second, your problem is not that JSON is being parsed incorrectly. It’s your debugging call to alert. When you pass the serverResponse object, alert coerces the object into a string by calling the object’s toString method, which simply returns '[object Object]'.

Try console.log. Objects can be inspected in the console.