Getting invalid json primitive error in jquery-ajax - json

Question

I am using Jquery Ajax for calling the methods in controller, but i am always getting invalid json primitive error.
Below is the Code.
Client side Code
$("#something >li").each(function () {
widgetsobj.push({
WidgetId: $(this).attr("dbid"),
ColumnNumber: 2,
RowNumber: 3,
WidgetType: "Graph",
WidgetName: "ddd",
PageName : "Page1"
});
});
$.ajax({
url: "/Home/ABC",
dataType: "json",
type: "POST",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
data: { pagename1: pagename, widgetsobj1: JSON.stringify(widgetsobj) },
success: function (data) {
alert("ss");
},
error: function (data) {
debugger;
}
});
at controller
[HttpPost, ValidateInput(false)]
public JsonResult ABC(string pagename1, List<XYZ> widgetsobj1)
{
// do something
}
Note XYZ is object with below properties.
WidgetId
ColumnNumber
RowNumber
WidgetType
WidgetName
PageName
So please let me know where i am wrong.

Answer 1

The thing about ajax is that it is very picky about what you send through. You need to make absolutely sure that everything is in the correct format.
i.e. you are using double quotations (") rather than single (') and so on.
The best thing to do, would be to use Firebug or a similar console to view the POST as it is executed or to use alert() to view the POST data before it is sent off. That way you can identify where the problem is.
Remember, when you use json.stringify() it is going to turn whatever you feed it into what it believes will be an acceptable JSON string and because it is just a string there could be syntax errors at any point!
From what I can see here, there may be an issue at:
data: { pagename1: pagename, widgetsobj1: JSON.stringify(widgetsobj) }
You may want to try:
data: { "pagename1": pagename, "widgetsobj1": JSON.stringify(widgetsobj) }

Answer 2

I got the same error. My solution was to add:
dataType: 'json',
to the ajax call. Looks like you already had that in in your ajax call. But Hope this helps someone else.