How to send form data as a single JSON object?

Question

Below is my code(client) to send form data in JSON format via JQUERY Ajax call

$(document).ready(function(){
    var contextroot = "/services/"
    $("#customerForm").submit(function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        var form = $(this);
        var action = form.attr("action");
        var data = form.serializeArray();

        $.ajax({
                    url: contextroot+action,
                    dataType: 'json',
                    type: 'POST',
                    contentType: 'application/json',
                    data: JSON.stringify(data),
                    success: function(data){
                        console.log("DATA POSTED SUCCESSFULLY"+data);
                    },
                    error: function( jqXhr, textStatus, errorThrown ){
                        console.log( errorThrown );
                    }
        });
});
});

Below is the SPRING controller(service) to accept JSON data

@RequestMapping(value="/customer/create", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public CustomerDTO create(@RequestBody CustomerDTO customerDTO) {
        return customerService.create(customerDTO);
    }

On submitting the form, I get the following error
HTTP400: BAD REQUEST - The request could not be processed by the server due to invalid syntax.

I guess this error is because the form data is serialized as array of JSON objects instead of just JSON object in request body as shown below

[{"name":"firstName","value":"John"},{"name":"lastName","value":"Miller"},{"name":"email","value":"[email protected]"},{"name":"mobile","value":"99868377"}]

However, service only accepts the following JSON data
{ "firstName" : "John", "lastName" : "Miller", "email" : "[email protected]", "mobile" : "99868377" }

How to convert form data into a single JSON object instead of an array of JSON objects.

Answer 1

I finally found a solution. I have written an utility method which generates JSON object

$(document).ready(function(){
    var contextroot = "/services/"
    $("#customerForm").submit(function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        var form = $(this);
        var action = form.attr("action");
        var data = form.serializeArray();

        $.ajax({
                    url: contextroot+action,
                    dataType: 'json',
                    type: 'POST',
                    contentType: 'application/json',
                    data: JSON.stringify(getFormData(data)),
                    success: function(data){
                        console.log("DATA POSTED SUCCESSFULLY"+data);
                    },
                    error: function( jqXhr, textStatus, errorThrown ){
                        console.log( errorThrown );
                    }
        });
});
});

//utility function
function getFormData(data) {
   var unindexed_array = data;
   var indexed_array = {};

   $.map(unindexed_array, function(n, i) {
    indexed_array[n['name']] = n['value'];
   });

   return indexed_array;
}