Create table from Json response using Knockout.js

Question

I am trying to create a table using Json response and Knockout.js

In Javascript

$(document).ready(function() {

    $.ajax({
        method : "POST",
       url : "devTestServlet",
       success : function(data) {

           ko.applyBindings({ 
               rows : data
               });
       }
       });
});

In HTML first of all I imported scripts in header:

   <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/knockout/knockout-3.0.0.js"></script>  
    <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/knockout.mapping/2.4.1/knockout.mapping.min.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css" type="text/css"></link>
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>

Then in body I did following:

<table >
<tr>
<th>ID</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Start Date</th>
<th>Finish Date</th>
<th>Position</th>
</tr>
<tbody data-bind="foreach: rows">
<tr>
            <td data-bind="text: id"></td>
            <td data-bind="text: name"></td>
            <td data-bind="text: Start_Date"></td>
            <td data-bind="text: Finish_Date"></td>
            <td data-bind="text: Position"></td>
</tr>
</table>

Format of the data looks like following:

[
        {
            "id": "1",
            "name": "Mike",
            "Start_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Finish_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Position": "Trainee"

        },
        {
            "id": "2",
            "name": "Jhon",
            "Start_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Finish_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Position": "Trainee"
        },
        {
            "id": "2",
            "name": "Jhon",
            "Start_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Finish_Date": "Sun 01/06/08",
            "Position": "Trainee"
        }
] 

This is my first program with Knockout.js so may be I am missing something. Could you please suggest ?

Answer 1

$.ajax returns the response as a string by default, knockout needs a JavaScript object. So you either have to specify dataType as JSON

$.ajax({
   method: "POST",
   url: "devTestServlet",
   dataType: 'json', 
   success: function(data) {
       ko.applyBindings({ 
           rows : data
       });
   }
});

or do the conversion yourself

$.ajax({
   method: "POST",
   url: "devTestServlet",
   success: function(data) {
       ko.applyBindings({ 
           rows : JSON.parse(data)
       });
   }
});