How do I build a JSON object to send to an AJAX WebService?
- by Ben McCormack
After trying to format my JSON data by hand in javascript and failing miserably, I realized there's probably a better way. Here's what the code for the web service method and relevant classes looks like in C#:
[WebMethod]
public Response ValidateAddress(Request request)
{
return new test_AddressValidation().GenerateResponse(
test_AddressValidation.ResponseType.Ambiguous);
}
...
public class Request
{
public Address Address;
}
public class Address
{
public string Address1;
public string Address2;
public string City;
public string State;
public string Zip;
public AddressClassification AddressClassification;
}
public class AddressClassification
{
public int Code;
public string Description;
}
The web service works great with using SOAP/XML, but I can't seem to get a valid response using javascript and jQuery because the message I get back from the server has a problem with my hand-coded JSON.
I can't use the jQuery getJSON function because the request requires HTTP POST, so I'm using the lower-level ajax function instead:
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
url: "http://bmccorm-xp/HBUpsAddressValidation/AddressValidation.asmx/ValidateAddress",
data: "{\"Address\":{\"Address1\":\"123 Main Street\",\"Address2\":null,\"City\":\"New York\",\"State\":\"NY\",\"Zip\":\"10000\",\"AddressClassification\":null}}",
dataType: "json",
success: function(response){
alert(response);
}
})
The ajax function is submitting everything specified in data:, which is where my problem is. How do I build a properly formatted JSON object in javascript so I can plug it in to my ajax call like so:
data: theRequest
I'll eventually be pulling data out of text inputs in forms, but for now hard-coded test data is fine.
How do I build a properly formatted JSON object to send to the web service?
