Question

I’m trying to create a webservice in asp that will be user in jQuery.Gantt http://mbielanczuk.com/jquery-gantt/

The format that is supported by this plugin looks like this:

[{  "name"  : "Task#1"
, "desc"  : " Task Desc"
, "values": [
  {  "from"       : "/Date(1296547200000)/"
   , "to"         : "/Date(1296554400000)/"
   , "desc"       : "<b>Task #1<br>"
   , "customClass": "ganttRed" (optional)
   , "label"      : "Task #1" (optional)
  },
  {  "from"       : "/Date(1296637200000)/"
   , "to"         : "/Date(1296649800000)/"
   , "desc": "<b>Task #</b>"
   , "customClass": "ganttOrange" (optional)
   , "label": "Task #1" (optional)
  }
]
},
...
]

I have created a webservice using JSON.NET that looks like so:

[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class Meeting
{
    [JsonProperty]
    public string name { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public string desc { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public List<Value> values { get; set; }
}

[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class Value
{
    [JsonProperty]
    public string id { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public DateTime from { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public DateTime to { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public string desc { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty]
    public string customClass { get; set; }
}

[WebMethod(Description = "simple test")]
    public string JSON_Test()
    {
        Meeting m1 = new Meeting { name = "one",
        desc = "ole",
        values = new List<Value> { 
            new Value { customClass = "1", desc = "no desc", from = new DateTime(2011, 12, 29, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), to = new DateTime(2011, 12, 29, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), id = "3" },
            new Value { customClass = "2", desc = "no desc1", from = new DateTime(2011, 12, 19, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), to = new DateTime(2011, 12, 20, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), id = "4" }
        } 
    };
        Meeting m2 = new Meeting
        {
            name = "second",
            desc = "desc",
            values = new List<Value> { 
            new Value { customClass = "1", desc = "no desc", from = new DateTime(2011, 11, 29, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), to = new DateTime(2011, 12, 29, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), id = "3" },
            new Value { customClass = "2", desc = "no desc1", from = new DateTime(2011, 11, 19, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), to = new DateTime(2011, 12, 20, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc), id = "4" }
        }
        };
        List<Meeting> meetings = new List<Meeting>();
        meetings.Add(m1);
        meetings.Add(m2);

        JsonSerializerSettings microsoftDateFormatSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings { DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat };

        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(meetings, microsoftDateFormatSettings);
    }

What I have now looks like this (firebug output):

{"d":"[{\"name\":\"one\",\"desc\":\"ole\",\"values\":[{\"id\":\"3\",\"from\":\"\\/Date(1325116800000)\\/\",\"to\":\"\\/Date(1325116800000)\\/\",\"desc\":\"no desc\",\"customClass\":\"1\"},{\"id\":\"4\",\"from\":\"\\/Date(1324252800000)\\/\",\"to\":\"\\/Date(1324339200000)\\/\",\"desc\":\"no desc1\",\"customClass\":\"2\"}]},{\"name\":\"second\",\"desc\":\"desc\",\"values\":[{\"id\":\"3\",\"from\":\"\\/Date(1322524800000)\\/\",\"to\":\"\\/Date(1325116800000)\\/\",\"desc\":\"no desc\",\"customClass\":\"1\"},{\"id\":\"4\",\"from\":\"\\/Date(1321660800000)\\/\",\"to\":\"\\/Date(1324339200000)\\/\",\"desc\":\"no desc1\",\"customClass\":\"2\"}]}]"}

This if working example that was modified by hand:

[{ "desc": "ole",
"name": "one",
"values": [{ "customClass": "1",
    "desc": "no desc",
    "from": "/Date(1325116800000)/",
    "id": "3",
    "to": "/Date(1325116800000)/"
},
    { "customClass": "2",
        "desc": "no desc1",
        "from": "/Date(1324252800000)/",
        "id": "4",
        "to": "/Date(1324339200000)/"
    }
  ]
}]

For some reason my service is adding extra {“d”:” and some slashes.
I was trying to figure this out trying to build custom serializer, but I’m stuck.

How to fix problem with that extra d on the beginning, “ and slashes?
Maybe I’m trying to reinvent the wheel and this is just a simple setting.

EDIT

This is code from jQuery.Gantt plugin that reads json data:

    var core = {
        /**
        * Create header
        */
        create: function(element) {
            /**
            * Retrieve data
            */
            if (typeof (settings.source) == 'object') {

                element.data = settings.source;
                core.init(element);

            } else {

                $.ajaxSetup({ scriptCharset: "utf-8", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" });
                $.getJSON(settings.source, function(jsData) {
                    element.data = jsData;
                    core.init(element);
                });
            }

        },

How to change it to work correctly with d?

EDIT2

Got it working like this:

create: function(element) {
/**
* Retrieve data
*/
if (typeof (settings.source) == ‘object’) {

            if (settings.source.hasOwnProperty("d"))
                element.data = settings.source.d;
            else
                element.data = settings.source;
            core.init(element);
            } else {

                $.ajaxSetup({
                    scriptCharset: "utf-8",
                    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8"
                });
                $.getJSON(settings.source, function(jsData) {

                    if (jsData.hasOwnProperty("d"))
                        element.data = jsData.d;
                    else
                        element.data = jsData;
                    core.init(element);
                });
            }

        }

But somehow my webservice is returning xml.
I’ve added:

 [ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)]

But when looking in firebug I get this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <ArrayOfMeeting xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://www.site.pl/">
<Meeting>
<name>one</name>
<desc>ole</desc>
<values>
  <Value>
    <id>3</id>
    <from>2011-12-29T00:00:00Z</from>
    <to>2011-12-29T00:00:00Z</to>
    <desc>no desc</desc>
    <customClass>1</customClass>
  </Value>
  <Value>
    <id>4</id>
    <from>2011-12-19T00:00:00Z</from>
    <to>2011-12-20T00:00:00Z</to>
    <desc>no desc1</desc>
    <customClass>2</customClass>
  </Value>
</values>
</Meeting>
<Meeting>
<name>second</name>
<desc>desc</desc>
<values>
  <Value>
    <id>3</id>
    <from>2011-11-29T00:00:00Z</from>
    <to>2011-12-29T00:00:00Z</to>
    <desc>no desc</desc>
    <customClass>1</customClass>
  </Value>
  <Value>
    <id>4</id>
    <from>2011-11-19T00:00:00Z</from>
    <to>2011-11-20T00:00:00Z</to>
    <desc>no desc1</desc>
    <customClass>2</customClass>
  </Value>
</values>
</Meeting>
</ArrayOfMeeting>

Answer 1

I think there are a couple of things going wrong here.

1. You don’t need to jsonify the response of the webmethod, asp.net does this for you.

2. ASP.net webservices wrap the response with this d parent, so you might need to do something like this to make the string into an object.

   var data = eval(response.d)

   $(“.gantt”).gantt({source: data})

OK eval might not work here so try – http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.parseJSON/

Update Call $.getJSON yourself **

OK I see what is going on now. If you use ASP.NET webservices / page methods you will always have the d wrapper I believe.

You need to call $.getJSON yourself and get the response and then pass that into the create method.