Question

I want to do the following.

1. Pass a complex json object in a hidden input variable
2. Get that hidden variable through the form collection object.
3. Convert that hidden text value to a dynamic object which I can loop through to
   get the data from it

So I think the first two items above I can do.

1. $(“#hiddenVariableID”).val(JSON.stringify(data));
2. Have a parameter called FormCollection collection in the MVC controller.
   Then get the value the following way String data =
   collection.Get(“hiddenVariableID”);
3. ?? Not sure how to do this.

The data I’m passing is an array of objects. The objects are never the same so that is why I need to convert the results in some type of dynamic object that I can loop through.

I can’t do an ajax call to do this because I want to stream down the data passed in the hidden variable. So it has to be through a form submission.

Thank you,
-Tesh

Answer 1

You can at that point use some JSON parser to convert between the string and a JSON object you can access dynamically. There are many JSON parsers out there, the code below shows how it can be done with two of them: the JavaScriptSerializer (part of the .NET Framework), and the JSON.NET (a non-MS library, but which IMO is really good).

public static void Test()
{
    string JSON = @"[
        {'name':'Scooby Doo', 'age':10},
        {'name':'Shaggy', 'age':18},
        {'name':'Daphne', 'age':19},
        {'name':'Fred', 'age':19},
        {'name':'Velma', 'age':20}
    ]".Replace('\'', '\"');

    Console.WriteLine("Using JavaScriptSerializer");
    JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();
    object[] o = jss.DeserializeObject(JSON) as object[];
    foreach (Dictionary<string, object> person in o)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}", person["name"], person["age"]);
    }

    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine("Using JSON.NET (Newtonsoft.Json) parser");
    JArray ja = JArray.Parse(JSON);
    foreach (var person in ja)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}", person["name"].ToObject<string>(), person["age"].ToObject<int>());
    }
}