A liitle help on submitting a json array, no-primitive to a web service

[jkirkerx]

Well that was hard, especially finding info on it in vb, everything was c#, so I had to translate it. Wrote this at 1:30, but had to take a service call. Just got back to test it. So a list of template_Elements, qualifies as a primitive, or it simply consumes the web method before processing, and passes on the json array for my manipulation. If you've got insight into this, let me know, would like to learn more about it. I'm going to try to parse the JSON back into an array, and write out some XML with it, hope it works, or I'm back to the drawing board.

_
Public Function create_DynamicCart_Template(
ByVal template_Name As String,
ByVal template_Array As List(Of templateElements)) As String

Dim dwExitCode As Integer = 2
Dim json\_response As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder
Dim html\_Stream As String = Nothing

Try

    Dim jss As JavaScriptSerializer = New JavaScriptSerializer()
    Dim elements = jss.Deserialize(Of List(Of templateElements))(template\_Array.ToString)

Then the class

Public Class templateElements

Private privateName As String
Public Property Name() As String
    Get
        Return privateName
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
        privateName = value
    End Set
End Property
Private privateCode As String
Public Property Code() As String
    Get
        Return privateCode
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
        privateCode = value
    End Set
End Property

End Class

[CodeHawkz]

I dealt with this problem just yesterday. I found a really really convenient way to that. But I am horrible with VB.Net otherwise I could have helped you out. Do you think if I post the C# code, you would be able to figure the VB.Net version of it? Btw, my methods only works with .Net Framework 3.0 and above. Is that what you use? If it's 4.0 I can give you a very easy method :)

[jkirkerx]

Sure, I can translate with no problem I did it working last night, I was surprised at what the fix was, and was able to generate my xml file. Would like to see what you came up with, because I think I'm going to use more of this in the future, it's pretty cool.

[CodeHawkz]

Hey there, Glad it worked out. Post your method here as well, so I can see whether I can improve my solution :) ExpandoObject Documentation[^] JSON Library[^] that I used

// This only works in .NET 4.0
dynamic result = new ExpandoObject();
IDictionary resultData = (IDictionary)result;

resultData.add("templateName", "tshirts");
var templateArray = new [] {
new { Name = "Red", Code = "RED" },
new { Name = "Green", Code = "GRN" },
new { Name = "Blue", Code = "BLU" }
};

resultData.add("templateArray", templateArray);

string jsonString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(result);

This will output a JSON string like the one you initially mentioned. I think the code is self explanatory. Feel free to reach out for further clarifications. Hope this helps, cheers

[jkirkerx]

Oh, that's pretty slick. I built my json the old fashioned way using string builder. I just caught the net4.0 comment, using 2.0 on this project. I was just fine tuning my function to correct the first record error being sort of blank.

_
Public Function create_DynamicCart_Template(
ByVal template_Name As String,
ByVal template_Array() As templateElements) As String

    Dim dwExitCode As Integer = 2 'An unknown error has occured
    Dim json\_response As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder

    Try
        Dim bTemplates As Boolean = DoesFoldersExist("~/App\_Data/Products/dynamicItems/templates")
        Dim bDisplay As Boolean = DoesFoldersExist("~/App\_Data/Products/pageDisplay")

        'Create the First Record
        Dim new\_Template As dynamicItem3.template = New dynamicItem3.template
        Dim new\_Element1 As dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1 = New dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1

        new\_Element1.Name = template\_Array(0).Name
        new\_Element1.suffix = template\_Array(0).Code

        If (template\_Array(0).Type.ToUpper = "SIMPLE") Then
            new\_Element1.elementType = dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1ElementType.Simple
        Else
            new\_Element1.elementType = dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1ElementType.Complex
        End If

        Dim new\_Element1\_Record() As dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1 = {new\_Element1}
        Dim new\_Element1\_Record\_Count As Integer = 0

        'Now Build the rest of the records
        For i As Integer = 1 To template\_Array.Length - 1
            'Build the XML Array from the JSON Array
            Array.Resize(new\_Element1\_Record, new\_Element1\_Record.Length + 1)
            new\_Element1\_Record(new\_Element1\_Record.Length - 1) = New dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1
            new\_Element1\_Record(new\_Element1\_Record.Length - 1).Name = template\_Array(i).Name
            new\_Element1\_Record(new\_Element1\_Record.Length - 1).suffix = template\_Array(i).Code

            If (template\_Array(i).Type.ToUpper = "SIMPLE") Then
                new\_Element1\_Record(new\_Element1\_Record.Length - 1).elementType = dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1ElementType.Simple
            Else
                new\_Element1\_Record(new\_Element1\_Record.Length - 1).elementType = dynamicItem3.templateElement\_1ElementType.Complex
            End If

            new\_Element1\_Record\_Count += 1

[CodeHawkz]

Woahh.. That's one long solution :omg: I think you can simplify that solution by compiling the logic into one class using a dictionary object or a stringbuilder object internally to hold the data. I will post a sample, if I get time around one of these days.

[jkirkerx]

I thought it was pretty optimized, considering it building a XML file, and writing it to disk.

[CodeHawkz]

Hey there, I am sorry about the really late reply. But I've been working with web technologies and XML manipulation much. One thing I've learnt is that XML is great for data transferring but it's slow and heavy. For instance, if you want to send one piece of data that is huge XML is fine. But if you want to send lots of small pieces of data, the number of tags generated for each small object, adds an unnecessary weight. I hope this gives you the basic idea of what I mean. I won't have time to write a fully generalized JSON class :( But it should be really easy to write a logic to generalize your specific class without using XML. Let me know if you still want it. Basic idea for it would be to implement an interface on all the classes you want to JSONify (I made that word up :P) and pass it on to a special class. The implementation of the interface would return a JSON data string for that specific object. The special class would bind them all to one piece of data. Hope this helps, Regards

[jkirkerx]

That's OK on the late reply, it's a discussion, and I got it working using a class with get and set to accept a JSON array of items. So I understand how to pass non-primitives to a web service now. I find XML to be really fast. I use XML reader and writer, and a class file to code against. So basically each xml element is like an array, that can be resized with Array.resize. And yes it does help solidify the techniques needed to accomplish the task. Thanks for collaborating with me on the subject. Guess not that many people are at that level yet.

[CodeHawkz]

hehe :) It's my pleasure to have a good discussion and help someone out. XML is not slow for your eye, but it's really slow when it comes to traversing the nodes (i.e. compared to others of course). Anyways, am sure for your purpose it won't effect much. However I'll try to write a sample code that would perform json serialization easily, over the weekend, and share it. regards

[jkirkerx]

It's a holiday weekend here, labor day, but I may send another array to a web service next week. I'm reworking my shopping cart and checkout program, implementing better and faster code, while cleaning up. Have a great weekend!