MVC3 jquery ajax json data

Question

I am trying to parse the json retrieved from a webservice called from my controller. For now, just to show the json string, I've done this

 $.ajax({
 url: this.href,
 type: 'GET',
 dataType: "json",
 data: { myPartNo: returnVal },
 success: function (result) { 
 ShowJson(result);
 }
 });

I just have the json string data displayed in a div as text (it works) but basically, I just want a few of the values from that json like "color" and "size" for example. Ok, so the vocabulary words like object array deserialize etc is where I need help. I've probably done it in other projects without knowing what it is called. What do I need to do? From the controller end or just within javascript?

Answer 1

On the server side you usually define some DTO (data transfer object) that has everything inside like:

public class MyDTO
{
public string value {get; set;}
public string color {get; set;}
public int size {get; set;}
}

In your controller you just wrap it into Json:

ActionResult MyController(int whatever)
{
MyDTO model = new MyDTO();
model.value = ...
return this.Json(model);
}

On the client side you read the result and treat it as a regular object like:

ShowJson(result.color);

//or

$("#mydiv").css("color", result.color); // for example

• Par6: thank you Kate for the post. You know where you have the "..." part in result.value, that's the webservice which response is a json string that I do not know the syntax for. Or would I use jQuery.parseJSON on the view?
• Kath: It's only about server side. Sorry for confusing, it was only about model. You just define the value and then pass as Json result. Let me know if it's still unclear.