So I’ve been working on Web application that uses the ASP MVC4 Web API. I like this approach especially as it will easily allow me to support other clients I/others may write in future, in so far as, it returns Json and is a RestAPI.

Now I’ve never used DataTables before so I’m trialling it as my client side html grid. However I quickly ran into problems with it and the expected Json Payload.

If you are familiar with the various .net Json serializers you’ll get some Json back with Key value pairs.

e.g.  {[“Name” : “Brian”, “Age” : “35”], [“Name” : “Brian1”, “Age” : “36”]}

This causes a major problem for DataTables in that it expects (by default)

e.g. {“Brian”, “35”], [“Brian1”,“36”]}

I say by default because maybe there is a way to configure this out of the box with column mappings and what not, however I can’t see the wood for the trees so my first approach will be to perform this data mapping myself, I’ll RTFM at a later date

So where can I plug into the pipeline and map this data? fnServerData ! This function allows me to manage how I get and format the data, exactly what I need.

Here’s how I’ve implemented it.

I’m not saying it’s the best solution! May even have a few bugs, but it appears to do the trick for me for now.

Update:

I’ve now read the documentation: and it’s oh so simple to handle the ASP MVC Json array.

Moral of the story

Read the manual