Question

I have an array of JSON objects, some of which contain key/value pairs for which the value is an array.

Example:

var jsonArray = [{ "key1":"value1", "key2":["value21", "value22"]},
                 { "key1":"value3", "key2":["value41", "value42"]}];

EDIT: Accidentally used braces instead of brackets.

I am trying to send this via AJAX to an ASP.NET web service using jQuery:

$.ajax({
    type: "post",
    url: "example.asmx/SomeFunction"
    data: "{ 'items': '" + JSON.stringify(jsonArray) + "' }",
    contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json"
});

Is this the correct way to send the data? Also, what data type do I need in the SomeFunction parameter to accept and parse the JSON data?

Answer 1

Is this the correct way to send the data?

No, the following would be better:

$.ajax({
    type: "post",
    url: "example.asmx/SomeFunction"
    data: JSON.stringify({ items: jsonArray }),
    contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json"
});

Also, what data type do I need in the SomeFunction parameter to accept and parse the JSON data?

It would map to:

public void SomeFunction(IEnumerable<Foo> items)
{
    ...
}

where Foo is defined like this:

public class Foo
{
    public string Key1 { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<string> Key2 { get; set; }
}

In my example I’ve used IEnumerable<T> as I assume you would be only enumerating over the values but if you need indexer you could also define them as arrays T[].