Coldfusion jQuery getJSON : Getting WDDX instead of JSON

Question

I am using Brian Rinaldi's coldfusion function to convert a dotnet webservice dataset into a structure of queries. Each query is then returned to the client page as JSON to be used in a jQuery function.

The queries are valid query objects. However, JSON is not being returned. Instead I get WDDX as follows:

<wddxPacket version='1.0'>
  <header />
  <data>
    <recordset rowCount='31'
    fieldNames='startdate,starttime,subscribercode,dest_number,description,ConnDuration,Callcharge,Usage,ConnType,pages,CallReference,SettingCount'
    type='coldfusion.sql.QueryTable'>
      <field name='startdate'>
        <string>2010-01-30T00:00:00+13:00</string>
        <string>2010-01-29T00:00:00+13:00</string>
      </field>
    </recordset>
  </data>
</wddxPacket>

using the following code:

function internetUsage(){   
    $.getJSON("system.cfc",{
        method:'getInternetUsage',
        SessionID:$("#vSessionID").val(),
        CustomerCode:$("#vCustomerCode").val(),
        FullUserName:$("#selUser").val(),
        StartDate:$("#vStartDate").val(),
        EndDate:$("#vEndDate").val(),
        returnformat:'json',
        queryformat:'column'
             },function(res,code){

         alert('hello');    // THIS NEVER FIRES!    
    });
}

So, I tried getting the CFC to convert the query into JSON and returning the JSON-ified result. This worked a little better in that valid JSON was returned BUT it is still wrapped in <wddxPacket> tags, as follows:

<wddxPacket version='1.0'><header/><data><string>
{
    "recordcount": 31,
    "columnlist": "callcharge,callreference,connduration,conntype,description,dest_number,pages,settingcount,startdate,starttime,subscribercode,usage",
    "data": [
        {
            "callcharge": "",
            "callreference": "",
            "connduration": 86403,
            "conntype": "UBS",
            "description": "dageorgetti",
            "dest_number": "",
            "pages": "",
            "settingcount": 5,
            "startdate": "2010-01-30T00:00:00+13:00",
            "starttime": "2010-01-30T00:00:00+13:00",
            "subscribercode": "dageorgetti",
            "usage": 33.7300
        }...<snip>...
...<snip>...
</string></data></wddxPacket>

The call for achieving the above is as follows:

function internetUsage(){   
    $.getJSON("system.cfc",{
        method:'getInternetUsage',
        SessionID:$("#vSessionID").val(),
        CustomerCode:$("#vCustomerCode").val(),
        FullUserName:$("#selUser").val(),
        StartDate:$("#vStartDate").val(),
        EndDate:$("#vEndDate").val(),
        jsonEncode:true // the cfc converts query to JSON
         },function(res,code){

              alert('Hello'); // still not firing       
    });
}

I am using returntype="JSON" in the CFC. The cfc is quite complex and I don't think I need to paste it here. I can confirm that it is definitely generating valid query objects, which the conversion function seems to be successfully converting to valid JSON. I don't know why it comes back to the client wrapped in wddxPacket tags.

EDIT - CFC

<cffunction name="invokeInternetUsage" access="remote" returnType="any" output="false">
    <cfargument name="SessionID" required="true">
    <cfargument name="CustomerCode" required="true">
    <cfargument name="FullUserName" required="true">
    <cfargument name="StartDate" required="true">
    <cfargument name="EndDate" required="true">
    <cfset var aTemp = "">
    <cftry>
        <cfinvoke 
            webservice="http://Portal/internet.asmx?WSDL"
            method="Usage"
            returnvariable="aTemp">
                <cfinvokeargument name="SessionID" value="#arguments.SessionID#"/>
                <cfinvokeargument name="CustomerCode" value="#arguments.CustomerCode#"/>
                <cfinvokeargument name="FullUserName" value="#arguments.FullUserName#"/>
                <cfinvokeargument name="StartDate" value="#arguments.StartDate#"/>
                <cfinvokeargument name="EndDate" value="#arguments.EndDate#"/>
        </cfinvoke>
        <cfcatch></cfcatch>
    </cftry>
    <cfreturn aTemp>
</cffunction>


<!--- convertDotNetDataset --->
<cffunction name="convertDotNetDataset" access="remote" returnType="any" output="false"
        hint="takes a .Net dataset and converts it to a CF structure of queries">
<cfargument name="dataset" required="true">
<cfset var Local = StructNew()>
<cfset Local.result = structNew() />
<cfset Local.aDataset = arguments.dataset.get_any() />
<cfset Local.xSchema = xmlParse(Local.aDataset[1]) />
<cfset Local.xData = xmlParse(Local.aDataset[2]) />

<!--- Create Queries --->
<cfset Local.xTables = Local.xSchema["xs:schema"]["xs:element"]["xs:complexType"]["xs:choice"] />
<cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen(Local.xTables.xmlChildren)#" index="Local.i">
    <cfset Local.tableName = Local.xTables.xmlChildren[Local.i].xmlAttributes.name />
    <cfset Local.xColumns = Local.xTables.xmlChildren[Local.i].xmlChildren[1].xmlChildren[1].xmlChildren/>
    <cfset Local.result[Local.tableName] = queryNew("") />
    <cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen(Local.xColumns)#" index="Local.j">
        <cfif left(Local.xColumns[Local.j].xmlAttributes.name,6) neq 'Column'>
            <cfset queryAddColumn(Local.result[Local.tableName], Local.xColumns[Local.j].xmlAttributes.name, arrayNew(1)) />
        </cfif>
    </cfloop>
</cfloop>

<!--- see if there are any row of data, if not exit --->
<cfif NOT StructKeyExists(Local.xData["diffgr:diffgram"], "NewDataSet")>
    <cfreturn Local.result>
</cfif>

<!--- Populate Queries --->
<cfset Local.xRows = Local.xData["diffgr:diffgram"]["NewDataSet"] />
<cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen(Local.xRows.xmlChildren)#" index="Local.i">
    <cftry>
<cfset Local.thisRow = Local.xRows.xmlChildren[Local.i] />
        <cfset Local.tableName = Local.thisRow.xmlName />
        <cfset queryAddRow(Local.result[Local.tableName], 1) />
        <cfloop from="1" to="#arrayLen(Local.thisRow.xmlChildren)#" index="Local.j">
            <cfif left(Local.thisRow.xmlChildren[Local.j].xmlName,6) neq 'Column'>
                <cfset querySetCell(Local.result[Local.tableName], Local.thisRow.xmlChildren[Local.j].xmlName, Local.thisRow.xmlChildren[Local.j].xmlText, Local.result[Local.tableName].recordCount) />
            </cfif>
        </cfloop>
        <cfcatch></cfcatch>
    </cftry>
</cfloop>

<cfreturn Local.result>

Answer 1

You're hand-building JSON, but the cfc method is treating that return value as a string to be wrapped in a WDDX packet. You should try adding returnformat="plain" to your cfc method. Also, you're using .getJSON(). Instead, use .get().

A quick look at the jQuery source code shows that getJSON() is just get() with the JSON attribute already hardcoded in:

getJSON: function( url, data, callback ) {
  return jQuery.get(url, data, callback, "json");
}

Answer 2

Whenever I have returned JSON data from a CFC my functions tend to look like this:

<cffunction name="methodName" access="remote" returnformat="plain" output="false">
<cfset jsonresult = '{
 "somevar1": "val1",
 "somevar2": "val2"}' />

<cfreturn jsonresult/>

Answer 3

Try running the CFC through your browser.

I first tried <cffunction name="myFunction" returnFormat="JSON"> in a CFC and got WDDX, too. Then I changed it to plain and ran it directly through the browser but it returned an error. Then changed to JSON again and checked it with the browser. It returned JSON as expected.