Is there a way to pass a "C#" object to a controller via AJAX?

Question

It's simple enough to pass a string to a controller action via jQuery ajax, but is it possible to serialize a group of variables into an object, send it to the controller, and have the controller recognize it as an object?

For example:

In the server, you have a class Obj as such:

class Obj{
    string a; int b; double c;
}

And in the controller, you have a method that is expecting an Obj object

public JsonResult UpdateObj(Obj obj){
    //stuff
}

Is there a way in Jquery to serialize some JavaScript vars into a class Obj and then send it to an MVC controller action via an AJAX post?

Answer 1

Sure, let's suppose that you have a strongly typed view:

@model Obj

<script type="text/javascript">
    // Serialize the model into a javascript variable
    var model = @Html.Raw(Json.Encode(Model));

    // post the javascript variable back to the controller 
    $.ajax({
        url: '/home/someAction',
        type: 'POST',  
        contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
        data: JSON.serialize(model),
        success: function(result) {
            // TODO: do something with the results
        }
    });
</script>

and in the controller action:

public ActionResult SomeAction(Obj obj)
{
    ...
}

Just a remark about this Obj, make it have public properties instead of some fields:

public class Obj
{
    public string A { get; set; }
    public int B { get; set; }
    public double C { get; set; }
}