I'm creating a web service using ASP.NET, C#, currently it is giving XML, but I'm going to get JSON, this is how I create my webmtheod:
[Webservice(Namespace="http://myurl)]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfiles_1)]
[System.ComponentModel.ToolboxItem(false)]
[WebMehod]
public string myfunction()
{
string r = "......";
return r;
}
these are in an ASMX file, which I call it in my browser
If you want to return JSON from your method you will need to use the ScriptMethod attribute.
Structure your method like this, notice the [ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)] attribute.
[WebMethod()]
[ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)]
public string MyMethod()
{
}
At the moment, this method is returning a string, which can be a JSON structured string. However, you may be better to return an object, which can be parsed as JSON. List<string> as well as Class's with standard data-types, like integers, strings etc are great for this. You can then return just that object. the ScriptMethod takes care of transforming it into JSON.
For example:
The Class you want to return:
public class MyJson
{
public int ID;
public List<string> SomeList;
public string SomeText;
}
And your method to return a populated MyJson
[WebMethod()]
[ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)]
public MyJson MyMethod()
{
MyJson m = new MyJson();
m.ID = 1;
m.SomeText = "Hello World!";
m.SomeList = new List<string>();
m.SomeList.Add("Foo");
m.SomeList.Add("Bar");
return m;
}
The return JSON will be structured just like the class. The property names will be used too, and your List<string> will become an array
Call this using AJAX. JQuery in this case:
$(document).ready(function(){
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/YourPage.aspx/MyMethod",
data: "{}",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "json",
success: function (msg) {
// content will be in here... I.E
var id = msg.d.ID;
var st = msg.d.SomeText;
var sl = msg.d.SomeList;
var i = sl.length;
var firstSlItem = sl[0];
}
});
});
An alternate approach would be to use JavaScriptSerializer to return JSON as a string:
[System.Web.Services.WebMethod()]
public string GetItems() {
List<string> listOfItems = new List<string> {"asdf", "qwerty", "abc", "123"};
JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
string json = js.Serialize(listOfItems);
return json;
}
...be sure to use this import:
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
...and you will then have to parse the result in javascript / jQuery like this:
var result = "";
$.ajax({
// ...other properties defined here...
success: function (response) {
result = JSON.parse(response.d);
}
});
// the List<string> has been parsed into an array:
for (var i = 0, len = result.length; i < len; i++) {
alert(result[i]);
}
If you convert an instance of a class in this same way, such as @Darren's example here, it will then be parsed as a javascript object-literal.
Also note that in an .asmx file webmethods are declared as public instance methods, as opposed to public static in .aspx files.
