CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#jqueryjsonasp.net-mvc
Harri
Harri

Reputation: 61

How do I get the JSON data in my MVC controller, when I dont know the JSON object name?

How do I get the JSON data in my controller, when I dont know the JSON object name? The Json object in my case is an array of objects, which have known property names.

For instance, if I had a black box page, posting JSON to my controller, and I didnt know the Json object name at the top level, e.g. in the example below if "RandomName" could be anything.

<div>
    <input type="button" value="click1" id="click1" />
</div>
<script src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function () {
        $('#click1').click(function (e) {
            //alert('here');
            var jsonObject = {
                "RandomName": [{ "WidgetName": "Cog", "Description": "Blah Blah" }, { "WidgetName": "Bolt", "Description": "Nuts and Bolts" }]
            };

            $.ajax({
                url: "@Url.Action("DoSomething")",
                type: "POST",
                data: JSON.stringify(jsonObject),
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
                error: function (response) {
                    alert(response.responseText);
            },
                success: function (response) {
                    alert(response);
                }
            });

        });
    });
</script>

..and I had the following class, which defines my data structure:

public class MyModel
{
    public List<Widget> widget { get; set; }
}

public class Widget
{
    public string WidgetName { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

What do I define as a parameter to my controller, when MyModel has a property widget, but I dont know the name given by the client. Its some random name.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult DoSomething(MyModel model)
{   
    return Json("Success");
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 382

Answers (1)

Darin Dimitrov
Darin Dimitrov

Reputation: 1039100

Before stringifying, massage your object and instead of:

data: JSON.stringify(jsonObject)

use:

data: JSON.stringify(jsonObject[Object.keys(jsonObject)[0]]) // get rid of the root property

Now the request will look like this:

[{
    "WidgetName": "Cog",
    "Description": "Blah Blah"
}, {
    "WidgetName": "Bolt",
    "Description": "Nuts and Bolts"
}]

and your controller action can now directly take a List<Widget> parameter.

Obviously this assumes that your jsonObject will always have 1 property (whose name you do not control as it probably comes from some other source).

Upvotes: 1

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