CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsonjqueryurlencode
sonicboom
sonicboom

Reputation: 5028

POSTing data to a server with jQuery - why use JSON?

All over the net I see examples of using jQuery to make AJAX POSTs of JSON encoded data to a server. What is the point of encoding the data in JSONfirst? Why not just send it as the default data type application/x-www-url-form-encoded which would save having to parse JSON data on the server?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 219

Answers (3)

Sunil Kumar
Sunil Kumar

Reputation: 1391

JSON is short for JavaScript Object Notation, and is a way to store information in an organized, easy-to-access manner.In a nutshell, it gives us a human-readable collection of data that we can access in a really logical manner. We use JSON encoding to organize stored information.

Example:

var jason = {

"age" : "24",

"hometown" : "Missoula, MT",

"gender" : "male"

};

To access the information stored in json, we can simply refer to the name of the property we need. Result:

document.write('Json is ' json.age); // Output: Jason is 24

Upvotes: -2

hvgotcodes
hvgotcodes

Reputation: 120268

First, you don't have to use json. If you are more comfortable using any other format, then use it.

But keep in mind, it's all strings. And sometimes it makes sense to use a format like JSON. What happens if you form is dynamic, and you enter multiple instances of the same thing (e.g. name1, name2, name3....)? It's really easy to iterate over such things with JSON. And JSON parsers are readily available for all platforms, so it's not like using it is a hinderance on any platforms. Plus, if both submissions and responses use the same format, there is the benefit of consistency for the data in requests and responses.

Upvotes: 1

Linuxios
Linuxios

Reputation: 35788

Couple of reasons. One, it's very easy to turn a JavaScript object into JSON, while it takes effort to encode it as x-www-url-form-encoded. Also, x-www-url-form-encoded isn't really used that much any more. Besides the couple of input types that require a form, most things use AJAX nowadays. Also, JSON is much easier to debug because it's legible.

Upvotes: 3

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