Deserializing JSON objects manually - should I be doing this?

OK, I'm probably doing something horrendously wrong here, but here goes.

Following on from my battle with attempting to getembedded javascript to call an embedded web service I have got to a certain point and realised something may well be going wrong somewhere. I am intercepting calls to my web service usign a custom IHttpHandlerFactory. I am dealing with these calls using a custom IHttpHandler. I am talking back to the javascript by callingcontext.Response.Output.Write(...). (Correct me please if I'm doing anything wrong). Is there anyway to access the deserialized array of arguments passed to the web service? I can get the string passed from the javascript by analysingcontext.Request.InputStream.

So, given a"Person" class of:

class Person
{
string _name;

public string Name
{
get { return _name; }
set { _name = value; }
}
}

And aweb method of:

[WebMethod]
public Person ChangeName(Person p)
{
...
}

And ajavascript call of:

var person = new Person();
person.Name = "Josh";
MyWebServiceClass.ChangeName(person);

Thecontext.Request.InputStream is:

{"__type":"Person","Name":"Josh"}

If I try:

Person p = JavaScriptSerializer.DeserializeObject("{\"__type\":\"Person\",\"Name\":\"Josh\"}");

I get an argument null exception.

If I so much as change "__type" to "_type", I get a nice name-value collection.

If I change the string to remove the "__type" altogether and try:

Person p = JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize<Person>("{\"Name\":\"Josh\"}");

I get a nicely deserializedPersonobject. But this involves messing with the InputStream, which I don't reckon I should have to be doing.

Any suggestions?

Cheers all,
Josh

Well, just as an update, I've discovered the way AJAX.NET deals with this deserialization is using a class called JavaScriptObjectDeserializer, which is now internal but I believe used to be public (seehttp://www.hanselman.com/blog/default.aspx?date=2006-07-07). I must be doing this wrong, can anyone give me any clues? Can I just return an instance of my web service in my HttpHandlerFactory somehow so I give it back to AJAX.NET to deal with I just "route" it to the right place? Please help!!!

I believe that this tutorial is a good resource for you:http://ajax.asp.net/docs/tutorials/ConsumingWebServicesWithAJAXTutorial.aspx

I didn't test it myself, but you could add a callback function to your code that invokes the web service, set the user context with the object you want to access it and then implement this callback function.

Hope this helps,

Maíra

Hi Maíra!

Thanks for the link! I'm not sure if this helps me out in my specific situation, but I might be wrong; I am not having the web service invoked under normal circumstances; I am intercepting a call (with my HttpHandler) for an "asmx" file that doesn't actually exist and trying to pass that call on the the relevent web service that is embedded within my dll. Maybe I don't understand what exactly is meant by setting the "user context", though - this sounds like it could be of help to me.

Thanks again,
Josh