Question

When I use JSON.parse(jsonString), the JSON is parsed no problem at all.

var result = JSON.parse(jsonString);

But when I use jQuery.getJSON(jsonString) i received an http error 403.

var result = jQuery.getJSON(jsonString);

Any idea why one will work and the other will not? They are both reading a string.

Thanks!

Answer 1

They are both reading a string.

Oh no! Those two methods are so very much different. They have absolutely nothing in common. They are accomplishing 2 entirely different tasks.

The first simply parses a JSON string into a javascript object:

var result = JSON.parse('{"foo": "bar"}');
alert(result.foo);

will show bar. Also notice that the JSON.parse method is a built-in method in modern browsers. It’s pure javascript and has strictly nothing to do with jQuery. Legacy browsers do not support it. For them you need to include the json2.js script to your page.

The second performs an AJAX call and expects as argument an url:

jQuery.getJSON('/someserversidescript', function(result) {
    // callback to be executed when the AJAX request succeeds
});

As you can see here the argument is an url. Calling jQuery.getJSON('{"foo": "bar"}') makes strictly no sense. I guess that’s the reason why your server responds with 403 error, since this is not valid url on your server. It expects that the server will return a JSON string as response. It’s simply a shorthand for:

$.ajax({
    url: '/someserversidescript',
    type: 'GET',
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function(result) {
        // callback to be executed when the AJAX request succeeds
    }
});