Question

I have to implement some sort of live search in a project at the university. I have the following code:
MVC Action:

[Authorize]  
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]  
[InitializeSimpleMembership]
public JsonResult Search(string term)  
{  
    var data = ... // get matching item  
    return Json(data, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);  
}  

Script in View:

$(document).ready(function() {  
    $("#searchText").keyup(function() {  
        $.getJSON('/Search/Search', { "term": $(this).val() },  function(result) {   
            alert(result);    
            $("#searchText").val(result.d);  
        });  
    });  
});

The controller action is called and returns the matching objects, but the javascript function is never called, no alert box, nothing. What can do to make this work?

Answer 1

There could be a problem with the JSON serialization of your data. This could often happen if you are attempting to directly serialize your EF domain models which might contain circular references, … The correct approach is of course to use view models.

In order to track the problem use FireBug and look at the Network tab to see the exact request/response of the AJAX call. There you will be able to see the response returned by the server which will contain the error message.