Struts and JSON

[Jay Abrahm]

Folks,

I'm not sure if this post goes in here but since it looked like a struts rendering issue that I didn't understand right I have posted it here.

I use struts 2 and have the following code in the action class

    
private JSONObject jsonData = toJSONObject(); // To pass to the jsp page
public JSONObject toJSONObject() throws JSONException {
	JSONObject json = new JSONObject();
	json.put("identifier", "name");
	json.put("label", "name");
	JSONArray jsonItems = new JSONArray();
	jsonItems.put("John Smith");
	jsonItems.put("Bob Smith");
	jsonItems.put("Nancy Smith");
	jsonItems.put("John Doe");
	json.put("items", jsonItems);
	System.out.println(json.toString());
	return json;
}

And the jsp page has the following call

/*
This is working JSON
var dataItems = {
   identifier: 'name',
   label: 'name',
   items: [
      {name: 'John Smith'},
      {name: 'Bob Smith'},
      {name: 'Nancy Smith'},
      {name: 'John Doe'}
   ]
};
alert(dataItems); // Returns [object Object]
*/

// This is not working which is the JSON passed from server
var dataItems = '<s:property value="jsonData" />'; // NEED TO FIX THIS !!!
alert(tempdataItems); // Returns {&qout;identifier":"....."]}

dojo.require("dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore");
var cb = dijit.byId("comboBoxId");
var store = new dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore({ data: dataItems });
cb.store = store;

The issues looks like the property tag is processes the data. Is there a way to prevent the property tag from doing this.

[Sagar Rohankar]

Don't know whether this will works for you, but give it a try,
Just escape the single quote " ' ", while creating JSON object like,

"{ \'key\' : \'value\' }";

[Jay Abrahm]

Thanks Sagar.
Thats the problem. I would have escaped it in the struts code but unfortunately I am using a JSONObject.

public JSONObject toJSONObject() throws JSONException {
	JSONObject json = new JSONObject();
	json.put("identifier", "name");
	json.put("label", "name");
	JSONArray jsonItems = new JSONArray();
	jsonItems.put("John Smith");
	jsonItems.put("Bob Smith");
	jsonItems.put("Nancy Smith");
	jsonItems.put("John Doe");
	json.put("items", jsonItems);
	System.out.println(json.toString());
	return json;
}

Is there a way to escape it in the property tag ?

[Sagar Rohankar]

Jay Abrahm wrote:I would have escaped it in the struts code but unfortunately I am using a JSONObject.

Hmm, I thought that JSONObject class is developed by you as a helper class.
Maybe, we can repleace that JSON string with "\'", like

json.toString().replace("'", "\'");

Jay Abrahm wrote:
Is there a way to escape it in the property tag ?

Never used Struts 2, but while exploring it <s:property> tag, I found something useful, its "escape" attribute itself, but its default value is "true", so don't think will it make any difference or not !!

Still use it and make its default value as a "false"

[Jay Abrahm]

Issue resolved. Thanks and that was quick. I didn't notice your post coming in.

Yes, escape="false" did fix the escape for double quotes issue.

dojo.addOnLoad(function(){ 
	/*
	var dataItems = {
	   identifier: 'name',
	   label: 'name',
	   items: [
		  {name: 'John Smith'},
		  {name: 'Bob Smith'},
		  {name: 'Nancy Smith'},
		  {name: 'John Doe'}
	   ] 
	};
	alert("dataItems = "+dataItems); // Works on dojo and returns alert - [object Object]
	*/

	var dataItems = '<s:property value="jsonData" escape="false"/>'; 
	alert("dataItems = "+dataItems); // Does not work on dojo but returns formatted data {"identifier":"name","label":"name","items":["John Smith","Bob Smith","Nancy Smith","John Doe"]}
	dataItems = dojo.fromJson(dataItems);
	alert("dataItems = "+dataItems); // Does not work on dojo and returns correct alert as first scenario - [object Object]
	dojo.require("dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore");
	var cb = dijit.byId("comboBoxId");
	var store = new dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore({ data: dataItems });
	cb.store = store;  
}); 

I still have another issue with the dojo not accepting the JSON (commented in the alerts above) but I guess the moderator might hack me down if I try to use this forum for that

[Jay Abrahm]

Just a side note. Even the JSON to dojo is working now fine. The nested object should also be a JSONObject.

I beginning to like JSON !!

public JSONObject toJSONObject() throws JSONException {
        JSONObject json = null;
        JSONArray jsonItems = null;
        JSONObject jsonItemObject = null;
        json = new JSONObject();
        json.put("identifier", "name");
        json.put("label", "name");
        jsonItems = new JSONArray();
        jsonItemObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonItemObject.put("name", "John Smith");
        jsonItems.put(jsonItemObject);
        jsonItemObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonItemObject.put("name", "Bob Smith");
        jsonItems.put(jsonItemObject);
        jsonItemObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonItemObject.put("name", "Nancy Smith");
        jsonItems.put(jsonItemObject);
        jsonItemObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonItemObject.put("name", "John Doe");
        jsonItems.put(jsonItemObject);
        json.put("items", jsonItems);
        return json;
}