Question

I’m passing a client-side JS array to server-side VB.NET code using a jQuery AJAX post request. I have a way that works, but I’m wondering about best practices. I started like this:

JS:

var myArray=["Apple","Banana"];
$.ajax({url:"myhandler.ashx", 
        data:{"myArray":myArray.toString()}, type: "POST"});

VB:

Dim myArray as String() 
    = HttpContext.Request.Form("myArray").Split(New [Char]() {","c})

In the JS, myArray.toString() converts my array to a comma separated string “Apple,Banana”, and then in the VB, Split converts it back to an array of strings.

Then I found out that ajax will serialize arrays for you automatically. So I can leave the .toString() off:

$.ajax({url:"myhandler.ashx", data:{"myArray":myArray}, type: "POST"});

When I did that, on the VB side I found that HttpContext.Request.Form no longer has a key “myArray” It is now called “myArray[]”, and lo and behold, it is a comma separated string: “Apple,Banana”.

Here are my questions:

1) Is there a built in way to deserialize in VB.NET that converts the comma separated string back into an array of strings?

2) Is the Ajax serialization of my array just calling toString(), and if a deserialize function exists is it just calling Split() like I am?

3) Are there any advantages of using the built in serialization/deserialization other than just being standard? I can think of a disadvantage. I don’t like that it renames my key by adding the square brackets.

Answer 1

Convert the array to JSON:

$.ajax({url:"myhandler.ashx", data:{"myArray":JSON.stringify(myArray)}, type: "POST"});

Deserialize the JSON array in .NET using Json.NET