Question

The last module of my chat script is passing values from C# code to JavaScript and JavaScript will post values to the DIV. Before I used DataBinder but when using it directly C# code is taken by AJAX’s update panel. Now, I need a set of Array values to be passed via Timer Tick function to JavaScript. How can I pass Arrays from C# to JavaScript using <%= %>. A part of my code follows.

protected void Timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (MyConnection.State == System.Data.ConnectionState.Open)
        {
            MyConnection.Close();
        }
        MyConnection.Open();
        OdbcCommand cmd = new OdbcCommand("Select message from messages where name=?", MyConnection);
        cmd.Parameters.Add("@email", OdbcType.VarChar, 255).Value = "human";
        OdbcDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
        ArrayList values = new ArrayList();
        while (dr.Read())
        {
            string messagev = dr[0].ToString();
            // What should I do here?
        }
        MyConnection.Close();
    }

I don’t want values to directly to be sent to the DIV. First it must be sent to JavaScript and then it must go to DIV.

For more clarification

I need C# to retrieve data from backend and to pass that data to client side (i.e. JavaScript) from JavaScript it has to be forwarded to DIV layer.

Answer 1

I am going to suggest the JQuery approach and get rid of the server-side timer. Using JQuery and the JQuery.Timer plugin: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-timer/ you can do this easier in my opinion and it will be nicer on the client end.

In your aspx page you have the element to display output:

<span id="status" style="display:none"></span>

and also a reference to JQuery, JQuery.Timer.js, and then your code to call the c# web method.

<script src="js/jquery-1.7.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="js/jquery.timer.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script>
    $(function () {
        var timer = $.timer(getMessage, 10000);
        timer.play();
    })

    function getMessage() {
        $.ajax({
            type: 'POST',
            contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
            url: 'message-service.asmx/getDBMessages',
            data: "{}",
            dataType: 'json',
            success: getMessageSuccess,
            error: getMessageError
        })
    }

    function getMessageError(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
       $('#status').html(errorThrown).show();
    }

    function getMessageSuccess(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
        $('#status').html(data.d).show();
    }
</script>

I would use a web-service for the server side db message retrieval:

[WebService(Namespace = "http://site.com/service")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
[System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
public class contact_service : System.Web.Services.WebService
{

    [WebMethod]
    public string getDBMessages()
    {
        try
        {
 if (MyConnection.State == System.Data.ConnectionState.Open)
        {
            MyConnection.Close();
        }
        MyConnection.Open();
        OdbcCommand cmd = new OdbcCommand("Select message from messages where name=?", MyConnection);
        cmd.Parameters.Add("@email", OdbcType.VarChar, 255).Value = "human";
        OdbcDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
        ArrayList values = new ArrayList();
        while (dr.Read())
        {
            string messagev = dr[0].ToString();
        }
        MyConnection.Close();
return messagev;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return ex.Message;
        }
    }

Hopefully this makes sense. I created a web-server (asmx) and created my server-side code to return a string. In the aspx markup I use JQuery to start a timer for 10 seconds and then an .ajax post to poll the service, retrieve the message and display it. No page refresh and much less hacky from my perspective.