Avoid returning nulls in JSON for AJAX calls

Question

I have the following method:

[HttpPost]
[AjaxOnly]
public JsonResult ValidateInput(string text)
{
    return new EmptyJsonResult();
}

/// <summary>
/// returns a JSON result that is marked as being empty.
/// </summary>
public sealed class EmptyJsonResult : JsonResult
{
    public EmptyJsonResult()
    {
        Data = new JsonResultData
        {
            Empty = true
        };
    }
}

public class JsonResultData
{
    public bool Empty { get; set; }
    public string[] Errors { get; set; }
}

I expected this to return {"Empty":true} to the browser, but it returns {"Empty":true,"Errors":null} instead.

Is there any attribute or something I can set in order to avoid returning nulls on objects I didn't populate?

and what value do you want to populate? you can always write your own getter for every object, however null is ok — alexsuslin
– alexsuslin, Commented Feb 20, 2012 at 16:07
may be you should look at the source code and see if you can change something.. here is a SO question that delves around that area: stackoverflow.com/questions/8833961/… — Baz1nga
– Baz1nga, Commented Feb 20, 2012 at 16:18

peterfoldi · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-20 16:12:34Z

1

Does it make any difference for you if you simply return an anon object?

    public EmptyJsonResult()
    {
    Data = new
        {
            Empty = true
        };
    }

answered Feb 20, 2012 at 16:12

peterfoldi

7,4715 gold badges24 silver badges19 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

John Koerner · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-20 16:02:31Z

0

I don't see a problem returning null, but if you need to accomplish your goal, have an interface called JsonResultData and two classes which implement it. One has all of the attributes you need to return and the second only has Empty in it.

answered Feb 20, 2012 at 16:02

John Koerner

38.2k8 gold badges92 silver badges142 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Avoid returning nulls in JSON for AJAX calls

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related