Question

I have a program which gets a list of locations from an sql db via a linq-to-entities query in a c# code-behind. This list needs to be parsed by a javascript method (Google maps api v3) in order to display the locations on a map. I need to find the best way to get the info from the server-side query to the javascript function for processing. Any thoughts!?

Edit: error on serialization…

JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            using (RamRideOpsEntities myEntities = new RamRideOpsEntities())
            {
                var validDates = (from a in myEntities.AdminOptions
                                  select new { a.ValidDate1, a.ValidDate2 }).First();

                var allWaitingRides = (from r in myEntities.Rides
                                       where ((r.TimeOfCall >= validDates.ValidDate1 ||
                                            r.TimeOfCall <= validDates.ValidDate2) && r.Status.Equals("Waiting", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                                       orderby r.TimeOfCall descending
                                       select r).ToList();

                json_topTen.Value = jss.Serialize(allWaitingRides.GetRange(0, 10).ToArray());
            }

---

Offset and length were out of bounds for the array or count is greater than the number of elements from index to the end of the source collection.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

Exception Details: System.ArgumentException: Offset and length were out of bounds for the array or count is greater than the number of elements from index to the end of the source collection.

Source Error: 


Line 106:                                       select r).ToList();
Line 107:
Line 108:                json_topTen.Value = jss.Serialize(allWaitingRides.GetRange(0, 10).ToArray());
Line 109:            }
Line 110:        }

Source File: D:\DOCUMENTS\RamRide\RamRideOps_PL\RamRideOps\RamRideOps\Ops\DispatchCar.aspx.cs    Line: 108 

Stack Trace: 


[ArgumentException: Offset and length were out of bounds for the array or count is greater than the number of elements from index to the end of the source collection.]
   System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource) +52
   System.Collections.Generic.List`1.GetRange(Int32 index, Int32 count) +70
   RamRideOps.DispatchCar.setTopTen() in D:\DOCUMENTS\RamRide\RamRideOps_PL\RamRideOps\RamRideOps\Ops\DispatchCar.aspx.cs:108
   RamRideOps.DispatchCar.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\DOCUMENTS\RamRide\RamRideOps_PL\RamRideOps\RamRideOps\Ops\DispatchCar.aspx.cs:41
   System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +14
   System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +35
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +91
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +74
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2207

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.272

Answer 1

If your entities are light enough, just serialize them into a JSON array and pass that back to the client. If they aren’t very light, create some data transfer objects to get the job done.

Here is what your ajax request could look like (using jQuery):

$.ajax({url: "url/to/handler.ashx",
    success: function(data, state) {
        //data represents the array of objects sent back from the server.
    }
});

Your handler would behave as specified below:

    public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
        context.Response.ContentType = "application/x-javascript";
        //fetch data from database.
        //return data by writing the serialized objects directly to context.Response.OutputStream
    }