Send JSON list from Javascript to Django Backend and parsing it properly

Question

I am trying to send a POST request to Django but I am not being able retrieve a json list. I can get the backend to retrieve the items (json objects) from the list but these objects seems unreadable.

Could someone please check my procedure and the results at the end of this thread? I am running out of options here =/

Step 1: Creating the JSON list:

google_news_articles = []

Step 2: Populating the JSON list:

for (each_checkbox in self.coverage_report_google_news_table.checked_rows){
    var each_article    = $(self.coverage_report_google_news_table.checked_rows[each_checkbox]).parents('tr');

    google_news_articles.push({
        date:           each_article.find('.date').text(),
        outlet_domain:  strip(each_article.find('.outlet_domain').text()),
        title:          each_article.find('.title').text(),
        link:           each_article.find('.title').attr('href')
    });
}

Step 3: Making a POST Request:

$.post('/google_news_unsafe_add/',{
    'google_news_articles[]':   google_news_articles,
    'csrfmiddlewaretoken':      $('[name="csrfmiddlewaretoken"]').val()
},function(result){
    if(result.result=='ok'){
        $('#save-status').html("Saved");
    }else{
        $('#save-status').html("An Error Occurred");
    }
});

Step 4: Handling it from the Backend:

def google_news_unsafe_add_view(request):
    print '!!!'
    print request.POST
    print '!!!'
    print '\\\\\\'
    print request.POST.getlist('google_news_articles[]')
    print '\\\\\\'
    return

Results: Terminal Prints:

!!!
<QueryDict: {u'csrfmiddlewaretoken': [u'nm5NAJyHEvoiFOThSrffU1pETcrQ7oa2'], u'google_news_articles[]': [u'[object Object]', u'[object Object]']}>
!!!
\\\
[u'[object Object]', u'[object Object]']
\\\

All I have is this [u'[object Object]', u'[object Object]'] list and when I try to parse the list, I get:

    json.loads(request.POST.getlist('google_news_articles[]'))
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 365, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
TypeError: expected string or buffer

And when trying to parse the objects, I get:

    print json.loads(each_json)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 365, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 383, in raw_decode
    raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

Any hints?

Don't pass the actual JSON object. Stringify it first. :P

Two-Bit Alchemist
– Two-Bit Alchemist

2014-03-29 19:26:21 +00:00
Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 19:26 — Two-Bit Alchemist
– Two-Bit Alchemist, Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 19:26

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:05:21Z

1

Thanks to Two-Bit Alchemist's comment I realized I should not send a pure JSON object but a serialized JSON object instead.

So I replaced this:

google_news_articles.push({
    date:           each_article.find('.date').text(),
    outlet_domain:  strip(each_article.find('.outlet_domain').text()),
    title:          each_article.find('.title').text(),
    link:           each_article.find('.title').attr('href')
});

for this:

google_news_articles.push(JSON.stringify({
    date:           each_article.find('.date').text(),
    outlet_domain:  strip(each_article.find('.outlet_domain').text()),
    title:          each_article.find('.title').text(),
    link:           each_article.find('.title').attr('href')
}));

And things are now working smoothly =)

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:05

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 29, 2014 at 19:34

marcelosalloum

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1 Comment

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Over a year ago

Note that they don't start out as JSON objects, they start out as JavaScript objects. They become JSON objects when you serialize them.

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