Question

I have some code that returns linq result (I even tried to add ToList())

I see the collection OK

but when I get out of the function body,
another abstraction layer is added

at the end ewhen I return the client the result

it gets:

“{ apps = System.Collections.Generic.List1[\u003c\u003ef__AnonymousType14[System.String,System.String,\u003c\u003ef__AnonymousType0`4[System.String,System.String,System.String,System.String],System.Object]], Status = succeeded }”

How can I serialize the linq result properly?

Update
Beforehand, it used to work without calling JSON()

    public object GetAppsData()
    {

        var appsData = new List<AppData>();
        using (IDataReader dr = DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase().ExecuteReader("usp_AppsData_GetAll"))
        {

            while (dr.Read())
            {
                appsData.Add(new AppData()
                {
                    AppGuid = (Guid)dr["AppGuid"],
                    AppName = (string)dr["AppName"],
                    ClientAppID = dr["ClientAppID"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["ClientAppID"],
                    Url = dr["Url"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["Url"],
                    DisplayName = dr["DisplayName"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["DisplayName"],
                    AppDesc = dr["AppDesc"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["AppDesc"],
                    PrivacyPolicyUrl = dr["PrivacyPolicyUrl"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["PrivacyPolicyUrl"],
                    TermsOfUseUrl = dr["TermsOfUseUrl"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["TermsOfUseUrl"],
                    //Platform = dr["Platform"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["Platform"],
                    //MaxVersion = dr["MaxVersion"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["MaxVersion"],
                    LocalizationKey = dr["LocalizationKey"] == DBNull.Value ? null : (string)dr["LocalizationKey"],
                    Compatibility = dr["Compatibility"] == DBNull.Value ? null : jss.Deserialize<object>((string)dr["Compatibility"])

                });

            }
        }

        var appsDataJson = appsData.Select(GenerateAppsDataClientResponse);

        return new { apps = appsDataJson, Status = "succeeded" };
    }



    private object GenerateAppsDataClientResponse(AppData a)
    {
        object result;
        if (a.Compatibility == null)
        {
            result = new
            {
                id = a.ClientAppID,
                url = a.Url,
                optionsDialog = new
                {
                    displayName = a.DisplayName,
                    appDesc = a.AppDesc,
                    privacyPolicyUrl = a.PrivacyPolicyUrl,
                    termsOfUseUrl = a.TermsOfUseUrl
                }
            };
        }
        else
        {
            // this line throws NullReferenceException
            result = new
            {
                id = a.ClientAppID,
                url = a.Url,
                optionsDialog = new
                {
                    displayName = a.DisplayName,
                    appDesc = a.AppDesc,
                    privacyPolicyUrl = a.PrivacyPolicyUrl,
                    termsOfUseUrl = a.TermsOfUseUrl
                },
                compatibility = a.Compatibility
            };
        }
        return result;
    }
}

and

    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult GetAppsData()
    {
        try
        {
           AppsDataManager appsData = new AppsDataManager();
           object adr =  appsData.GetAppsData();
           return this.JsonpOptional(adr);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Log.Application.Error("ClientDataController.GetSettings", ex);
            return this.JsonpOptional(new { Status = "failed", Reason = ex.Message });
        }
    }

Answer 1

The cryptic datatype you see in the debugger is just the classname of the anonymous class you return with the new keyword.

Your main problem is, that you have to return a JsonResult and not the plain object. And don’t forget to specify JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet. Otherwise you will get an exception when returning JSON Data to a HTTP GET request:

return Json(new { apps = appsDataJson, Status = "succeeded" },
                 JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);