Question

In ASP.Net MVC action methods can return json objects simply by returning something like so:

JSon([whatever])

How do I return a JSon representation of say List<String> with webforms either through a service or through a method in the code behind of an aspx page? This seems incredibly confusing compared to ASP.Net MVC.

Answer 1

You should take a look at http://json.codeplex.com/ which would allow you do the following:

using Newtonsoft.Json;

List<String> strings = new List<String>();
strings.Add("one");
strings.Add("two");
strings.Add("three");

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(strings);
// same as json = "[\"one\",\"two\",\"three\"]";

json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { mystrings = strings });
// same as json = "{\"mystrings\":[\"one\",\"two\",\"three\"]}";