serializeJSON between ColdFusion 8 and ColdFusion 10

Question

I have a function that returns a JSON string, and ColdFusion 10 returns a slightly different value than ColdFusion 8.

In CF10, I get

{"ZIPCODE":90210,"PHONE":"[phone]","LAT":83,"DISTANCE":74,"NAME":"Pueblo, CO","ADDRESS":"6830 Meddley Drive","LONG":104}

but in CF8, I get this

{\"DISTANCE\":74,\"LAT\":83,\"ZIPCODE\":90210,\"NAME\":\"Pueblo, CO\",\"PHONE\":\"[phone]\",\"ADDRESS\":\"6830 Medley Drive\",\"LONG\":104.}

For the function, I have returnformat set to JSON and use serializeJSON() for the return value. I'm calling the function via jQuery's $.ajax method with dataType set to JSON

The backslashes from CF8 are causing errors in the javascript used to parse the data. Why is this happening, and is there a workaround?

Nimbus

The CFC will automatically return it in JSON format, so calling serializeJSON() JSON-ifies the JSON. Which effectively escapes all the special characters with backslashes. Try it without calling serializeJSON(). – Alexandrite

@Alexandrite - (Edit) Yep, no need to use both. (You could even omit both and just use the url parameter ?returnformat=json to specify you want the result in json format). Anyway, you should write that up as an answer, btw. – Conquest

I wonder why this isn't a problem with CF10 ... – Nimbus

Well if it does not "double-serialize" (as the code is instructing CF to do) then they obviously added some logic as a protection measure. CF must detect whether the result is already serialized, and if so it returns the result "as-is". – Conquest

Answer 1

my guess would cf10 is automatically returning it in json format and cf8 isn't

Spectroheliograph

No, based on the results CF10 is smart enough to recognize the code is unintentionally serializing the result twice (ie using both serializeJSON() and returnformat="json") so it must ignore one of them. CF8 does not have that feature, so it serializes the result twice. – Conquest