Question

I’m new to jQuery and just playing for fun. I have some code that I want to try to modify for my needs but the current js file is getting its data from google spreadsheets and then returning each item as objects. I don’t use json to pass data from my server to jQuery so I’m wondering how I can convert json to objects.

The current way its doing it is(tabletop is the name of their js program that gets data from google docs):

Tabletop.init({
    key: timelineConfig.key,
    callback: setupTimeline,
    wanted: [timelineConfig.sheetName],
    postProcess: function(el){
        //alert(el['photourl']);
        el['timestamp'] = Date.parse(el['date']);
        el['display_date'] = el['displaydate'];
        el['read_more_url'] = el['readmoreurl'];
        el['photo_url'] = el['photourl'];
    }
});

I have added alerts all over the file and I think this is the area that gets the data and passes it on. I was thinking of trying to replace items in their object with objects from my json and see if it changes anything, but I’m unsure. Typrically I pass individual items via json,hashmaps, and lists, not sure how it works with objects or how to access objects(I simply call url’s that I create for the requests, $("#user-history").load("/cooltimeline/{{ user.id }}");). But where do I start if I want to turn json data into objects?

If it helps, here’s the demo of what I’m trying to do(but by having it use json data).

p.s. I’m really looking for the logic of how to complete what I’m trying to do and perhaps some ideas I’m missing so I can google them and learn.

Answer 1

Use use function JSON.parse(json) 🙂 Or jQuery.parseJSON(json)

var json = '{"a":2}';
var object = JSON.parse(json);

alert(object.a);

You should see alert with message: 2

---

I don’t realy know if I understand your comment, but maybe you want just do this:

   postProcess: function(el){ //here el is JSON string
        el = JSON.parse(el); // now el is an object
        el.timestamp = Date.parse(el.date);
        el.display_date = el.displaydate;
        el.read_more_url = el.readmoreurl;
        el.photo_url = el.photourl;

        return el;

    }

Btw. you do not need to use brackets on know property names without not standard names:

el['timestamp'] === el.timestamp

It will be easier if you paste your JSON