Question

Is there a way to get values from database (or XML file) using ASP.NET and then inject them into a JavaScript array?

Answer 1

Either of the approaches (AJAX or Literals) will work, for ‘getting data’.

I tend to use literals when the page is generated for passing through ‘configuration’ and use AJAX requests (returning JSON) for retrieving data. Although with small amounts of data you might be better served just using literals embeded in your page. If you’re doing this from an included JS file though you’ll more likey want to use AJAX calls.

An example of a object literal might be …

                var myConfig = 
                    {
                        AnArray: <%= mySerializedArrayFromTheServer%>,
                        ASerializedObject : <%=mySerializedObjectFromTheServer%>,
                        DataUri : 'http://someweburi/ThatReturns.json/',
                        SomeHardCodedValue : 'This is an message',
                        IdsUsedInPage: {
                                            GridContainer: 'uxGridContainerId',
                                            FormContainer: 'uxFormContainerId
                                        }

                    };

Remember that you can serialize to XML and use a parser in your Javascript too, although this is less common and usually has a performance overhead.