Loop through JSON string - not using DeserializeJSON()

[WolfShade]

Hello, all,

Is it possible for ColdFusion to iterate JSON data (stringify()) without parsing it to a JSON object using DeserializeJSON()?

V/r,

^ _ ^

PS:  Specifically if I have a JSON string like..

[{"name":"whichForm","value":"NDOD"},{"name":"caseNumber","value":"123"},{"name":"airLiner-0[]","value":"AIR"},{"name":"airLiner-0[]","value":"LINER"}]

I need to iterate this and get name/value pairs, without using DeserializeJSON(). 

[nic_tunney]

I'm sure you could build a string parser, but deserializeJSON() is useful in two ways:

1. It ensures that the string sent as JSON is indeed valid JSON, something your string parser would struggle with, and

2. I'd be willing to bet it has less overhead than any string parser you'd write.

I'd say deserializeJSON() is the proper tool for the job.

-Nic

[WolfShade]

Hi, Nic,

Yes, it would, unfortunately for the application that I'm working on, it's destroying data that I need.

I'm using jQuery to serializeArray() a form.  One of the form fields is a series of checkboxes.  Even turning it into an array by naming it "airLiner-0[]" (which can be cloned, so there could also be "airLiner-1[]" and "airLiner-2[]"), DeserializeJSON() converts that to an associative array, which eliminates duplicates - so only the last checked value is set (ie, "airLiner-0[]" = "AIR", "airLiner-0[]" = "Liner", but only "Liner" is set because it overwrites the first set.)

So, I need to be able to iterate the JSON string, not a JSON object, in order to get all values.

V/r,

^ _ ^

[nic_tunney]

Perhaps use JSON.stringify() on individual form fields instead (if you are posting via AJAX).  Alternatively, you could $('myForm').serialize() on submit.  The focus needs to be on getting good data to the CFML backend that it can use, not trying to manage it using list parsing, which is fragile and could fail.

-Nic

[WolfShade]

.serialize() would just turn everything into a GET request format (name=value&name2=value2&name3=value3), which really doesn't help.  And I have to do it this way because the form can potentially perpetually add a section of form fields (customers adding items to be part of a shipping quote request system), and we are prevented from bypassing the "Maximum number of POST request parameters" (set to 50 on our servers), so I'm submitting everything through ONE post request.  Hence the JSON.stringify() that is being used prior to AJaX post.

Using DeserializeJSON() on the server-side is what I wanted to do - until I learned about it killing the checkbox values and giving only the last checked value as the whole value.

V/r,

^ _ ^

[birdy1980]

Hi,

Maybe you could use a regular expression to get the name-value pairs? something along the way:

var sRegex = """name"":""(.+?)"".+?""value"":""(.+?)""";
var sJSONstring = "[{""name"":""whichForm"",""value"":""NDOD""},{""name"":""caseNumber"",""value"":""123""},{""name"":""airLiner -0[]"",""value"":""AIR""},{""name"":""airLiner-0[]"",""value"":""LINER""}]";
var aMatches = sJSONstring.reMatchNoCase(sRegex);
writedump(aMatches);

Then split the aMatches strings using various list functions. Or  you could use reFindNoCase to get the subgroups.