[c#] "Invalid JSON primitive" in Ajax processing

I am getting an error in an ajax call from jQuery.

Here is my jQuery function:

function DeleteItem(RecordId, UId, XmlName, ItemType, UserProfileId) {
    var obj = {
        RecordId: RecordId,
        UserId: UId,
        UserProfileId: UserProfileId,
        ItemType: ItemType,
        FileName: XmlName
    };
    var json = Sys.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.serialize(obj);

    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "EditUserProfile.aspx/DeleteRecord",
        data: json,
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "json",
        async: true,
        cache: false,
        success: function(msg) {
            if (msg.d != null) {
                RefreshData(ItemType, msg.d);
            }
        },
        error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            alert("error occured during deleting");
        }
    });
}

and this is my WebMethod:

[WebMethod]
public static string DeleteRecord(Int64 RecordId, Int64 UserId, Int64 UserProfileId, string ItemType, string FileName) {
    try {
        string FilePath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(FileName);

        XDocument xmldoc = XDocument.Load(FilePath);
        XElement Xelm = xmldoc.Element("UserProfile");
        XElement parentElement = Xelm.XPathSelectElement(ItemType + "/Fields");

        (from BO in parentElement.Descendants("Record")
         where BO.Element("Id").Attribute("value").Value == RecordId.ToString()
         select BO).Remove();
        XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Parse(Xelm.ToString(), LoadOptions.PreserveWhitespace);
        xdoc.Save(FilePath);

        UserInfoHandler obj = new UserInfoHandler();
        return obj.GetHTML(UserId, UserProfileId, FileName, ItemType, RecordId, Xelm).ToString();
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        HandleException.LogError(ex, "EditUserProfile.aspx", "DeleteRecord");
    }
    return "success";
}

Can anybody please tell me what's wrong in my code?

I am getting this error:

{
    "Message":"Invalid JSON primitive: RecordId.",
    "StackTrace":"
       at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializePrimitiveObject()
       at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeInternal(Int32 depth)
       at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.BasicDeserialize(String input, Int32 depthLimit, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
       at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize(JavaScriptSerializer serializer, String input, Type type, Int32 depthLimit)
       at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize[T](String input)
       at System.Web.Script.Services.RestHandler.GetRawParamsFromPostRequest(HttpContext context, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
       at System.Web.Script.Services.RestHandler.GetRawParams(WebServiceMethodData methodData, HttpContext context)
       at System.Web.Script.Services.RestHandler.ExecuteWebServiceCall(HttpContext context, WebServiceMethodData methodData)",
    "ExceptionType":"System.ArgumentException"
}

This question is related to c# jquery webmethod

The answer is


these answers just had me bouncing back and forth between invalid parameter and missing parameter.

this worked for me , just wrap string variables in quotes...

data: { RecordId: RecordId,
            UserId: UId,
            UserProfileId: UserProfileId,
            ItemType: '"' +  ItemType + '"',
            FileName: '"' +  XmlName + '"'
    }

On the Server, to Serialize/Deserialize json to custom objects:

public static string Serialize<T>(T obj)
{
    DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    serializer.WriteObject(ms, obj);
    string retVal = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
    return retVal;
}

public static T Deserialize<T>(string json)
{
    T obj = Activator.CreateInstance<T>();
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json));
    DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
    obj = (T)serializer.ReadObject(ms);
    ms.Close();
    return obj;
}

it's working something like this

data: JSON.stringify({'id':x}),

As noted by jitter, the $.ajax function serializes any object/array used as the data parameter into a url-encoded format. Oddly enough, the dataType parameter only applies to the response from the server - and not to any data in the request.

After encountering the same problem I downloaded and used the jquery-json plugin to correctly encode the request data to the ScriptService. Then, used the $.toJSON function to encode the desired arguments to send to the server:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "EditUserProfile.aspx/DeleteRecord",
    data: $.toJSON(obj),
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json"
    ....
});

Using

data : JSON.stringify(obj)

in the above situation would have worked I believe.

Note: You should add json2.js library all browsers don't support that JSON object (IE7-) Difference between json.js and json2.js


I was facing the same issue, what i came with good solution is as below:

Try this...

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "EditUserProfile.aspx/DeleteRecord",
    data: '{RecordId: ' + RecordId + ', UserId: ' + UId + ', UserProfileId:' + UserProfileId + ', ItemType: \'' + ItemType + '\', FileName: '\' + XmlName + '\'}',
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json",
    async: true,
    cache: false,
    success: function(msg) {
        if (msg.d != null) {
            RefreshData(ItemType, msg.d);
        }
    },
    error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert("error occured during deleting");
    }
});

Please note here for string type parameter i have used (\') escape sequence character for denoting it as string value.


I had the same issue. I was calling parent page "Save" from Popup window Close. Found that I was using ClientIDMode="Static" on both parent and popup page with same control id. Removing ClientIDMode="Static" from one of the pages solved the issue.


If manually formatting JSON, there is a very handy validator here: jsonlint.com

Use double quotes instead of single quotes:

Invalid:

{
    'project': 'a2ab6ef4-1a8c-40cd-b561-2112b6baffd6',
    'franchise': '110bcca5-cc74-416a-9e2a-f90a8c5f63a0'
}

Valid:

{
    "project": "a2ab6ef4-1a8c-40cd-b561-2112b6baffd6",
    "franchise": "18e899f6-dd71-41b7-8c45-5dc0919679ef"
}

Jquery Ajax will default send the data as query string parameters form like:

RecordId=456&UserId=123

unless the processData option is set to false, in which case it will sent as object to the server.

  • contentType option is for the server that in which format client has sent the data.

  • dataType option is for the server which tells that what type of data client is expecting back from the server.

Don't specify contentType so that server will parse them as query String parameters not as json.

OR

Use contentType as 'application/json; charset=utf-8' and use JSON.stringify(object) so that server would be able to deserialize json from string.


I guess @jitter was right in his guess, but his solution didn't work for me.

Here is what it did work:

$.ajax({
    ...
    data: "{ intFoo: " + intFoo + " }",
    ...
});

I haven't tried but i think if the parametter is a string it should be like this:

$.ajax({
    ...
    data: "{ intFoo: " + intFoo + ", strBar: '" + strBar + "' }",
    ...
});

Here dataTpe is "json" so, data/reqParam must be in the form of string while calling API, many as much as object as you want but at last inside $.ajax's data stringify the object.

             let person= {  name: 'john',
                age: 22
            };

           var personStr = JSON.stringify(person); 

            $.ajax({
                url: "@Url.Action("METHOD", "CONTROLLER")",
                type: "POST",
                data: JSON.stringify( { param1: personStr } ),
                contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
        success: function (response) {

            console.log("Success");

        },
        error: function (error) {
            console.log("error found",error);
        }
    });

OR,

       $.ajax({
                url: "@Url.Action("METHOD", "CONTROLLER")",
                type: "POST",
                data: personStr,
                contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
        success: function (response) {

            console.log("Success");

        },
        error: function (error) {
            console.log("error found",error);
        }
    });