Abstract JSON (De)serialization

[Kevin Watkins]

Hi,

Any chance you could abstract the JSON (de)serialization a bit in the code? The JavaScriptSerializer used isn't great; I need the extra flexibility offered by JSON.NET. (http://json.codeplex.com/) Be nice if I could just plugin my own JSON service and use that instead of having to patch the code each new release.

Thanks,

Kev

[Atanas Korchev]

Hello Kevin Watkins,

The GridAction attribute is actually not using the JavaScriptSerializer class at all. It is using the built-in JsonResult result class which upon execution is using JavaScriptSerializer:
filterContext.Result = new JsonResult
                {
                    Data = new
                    {
                        data = dataProcessor.ProcessedDataSource,
                        total = dataProcessor.Total
                    }
                };

I am not sure if it is possible to make the JsonResult use any other serializer than the built-in.

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Kevin Watkins]

Hi,

It's easy to use a different serializer, simply create a class that extends JsonResult and overrides ExecuteResults, e.g.:

/// <summary>
/// <see cref="JsonResult" /> that uses the Json.NET library's <see cref="JsonSerializer" /> to serialize to JSON.
/// </summary>
public sealed class JsonNetResult : JsonResult
{
    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        ValidateArgument.IsNotNull(context, "context");
        HttpResponseBase response = context.HttpContext.Response;
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType))
        {
            response.ContentType = ContentType;
        }
        else
        {
            response.ContentType = "application/json";
        }
        if (ContentEncoding != null)
        {
            response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
        }
        if (Data != null)
        {
            using (var writer = new StreamWriter(response.OutputStream))
            {
                JsonSerializer serializer = JsonSerializer.Create();
                serializer.Serialize(writer, Data);
            }
        }
    }
}

You also explicitly use the JavaScriptSerializer elsewhere, e.g. ClientSideObjectWriter.

You could define an interface that had a few methods to serialize and deserialize, then a static property somewhere with a default implementation (like ModelBinders.Default for example in MVC) that used JavaScriptSerializer. If I wanted to swap out the serializer then I could write my own implementation of your interface and simply set the property with my implementation to use it throughout your code.

Cheers,

Kev

[Atanas Korchev]

Hello Kevin Watkins,

Thank you for your clarification. I will log it as a feature request and based on other customer's feedback we will prioritize it. I have updated your telerik points as a token of gratitude!

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Patrick]

This is also discussed in this thread:

http://www.telerik.com/community/forums/aspnet-mvc/general/grid-custom-javascriptserializer.aspx

The ability to change the serializer provides for very significant developer time savings when dealing with anything but the most simple of object graphs.