can somebody please tell me the difference if i do in my ActionResult
in this case
var transAcc= "SomeListHere";
var v = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(transAcc);
return Content(v);
and
var transAcc= "SameListHere";
return Json(new {list=transAcc });
The difference is that in the first case you are not setting the Content-Type response header to application/json while in the second this is done.
In first case the response is plain text and looks like this:
"SomeListHere"
And the Content-Type header is set to text/html which is incorrect as this is not HTML. It's text/plain. That's not even a valid JSON string.
In the second case it is a JSON string which looks like this:
{"list":"SomeListHere"}
Also in the first code example you are manually performing the JSON serialization which is plumbing code and should not be done in a controller and should be externalized in a custom ActionResult which is exactly what the creators of the ASP.NET MVC framework have don for you in the face of JsonResult which is your second code example.
Conclusion: if you want to send a JSON serialized representation of some model to the client always use the second approach.
SelectListItem i just added the "someListHere" for simplification .... is it still the same
list property. You should use the second example as it sets proper Content-Type header.None. Second one uses the first one. But I find the second more readable.
Here is the code behind JsonResult's ExecuteResult (using reflector) which is used in your second case:
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
.... // some stuff
if (this.Data != null)
{
JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
response.Write(serializer.Serialize(this.Data));
}
}
Darin's response is correct although mine showing internals of the second.
