Grid Custom JavaScriptSerializer

[Dustin]

On a recent project we had the requirement to have a custom Javascript Serializer to handle the conversion of business objects to JSON-encoded data. Specifically, on our View Model objects we have properties that have circular references. These properties aren't a problem when rendering data on the views or posting data back to the controller, but they cannot be serialized. 

Normally this is accomplished as follows:

var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer()
var customConverter = new CustomJavascriptConverter();
serializer.RegisterConverters(new List<JavaScriptConverter>() {customConverter});

However, Telerik MVC doesn't expose the JavaScriptSerializer object. In fact, most places where the serializer is used follow this pattern:

var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer()
return serializer.Serialize(obj)

Our solution is to create a JavaScriptSerializerFactory that holds a JavaScript Serializer object instance, and replace any instances of new JavaScriptSerializer() with JavaScriptSerializerFactory.Instance.

Additionally, JavaScriptSerializerFactory.Instance returns a serialization Interface to allow us to easily swap out the serializer with a third party json serializer by writing a wrapper class that implements the Interface.

It would be great if we could see similar functionality in future versions of Telerik MVC.

Please see the attached files for a patch (diff) of our changes. Use Git (or other patch tool) To apply this patch to the Telerik MVC 2011.Q1 release 

[Dustin]

Fixed Patch file

[Stephen]

Any news on this?

Something like this needed desperately. The MVC JavaScriptSerializer is horrible all around, and unusable if you are using EF code first; you can't use the JavaScriptSerializer with any entities that have a navigation property because the EF generated proxy will always contain a cicular reference (even if the entities they wrap do not). 

We need a way to tell Telerik componts to use a different serializer, but I don't want to have to hand-hack in a fix each time you guys release a new version.

[Patrick]

Indeed, is there some reason the ability to inject a new serializer can't make it into the Q3 release?  This is a fairly small change, but has major ramifications for those who are running into serialization problems.

[loi]

Not sure if this will help, but we use the Json.net library at http://json.codeplex.com/ to serialize complex objects such as DataSet, DataTable, Dictionary, List.. It's working great!!

Here is our JsonNetResult class

using System.Web.Mvc;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters;

    public class JsonNetResult : JsonResult
    {
        public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
        {
            if (context == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("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)
            {
                response.Write(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Data));
            }
        }
    }

Using it from controller

public ActionResult SomeGetJsonDataMethod ()
{
    SomeClass obj = new SomeClass();
    return new JsonNetResult{ Data: obj};
}