Chrome sendrequest error: TypeError: Converting ci

Question

I've got the following...

chrome.extension.sendRequest({
  req: "getDocument",
  docu: pagedoc,
  name: 'name'
}, function(response){
  var efjs = response.reply;
});

which calls the following..

case "getBrowserForDocumentAttribute":
  alert("ZOMG HERE");
  sendResponse({
    reply: getBrowserForDocumentAttribute(request.docu,request.name)
  });
  break;

However, my code never reaches "ZOMG HERE" but rather throws the following error while running chrome.extension.sendRequest

 Uncaught TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON
 chromeHidden.JSON.stringify
 chrome.Port.postMessage
 chrome.initExtension.chrome.extension.sendRequest
 suggestQuery

Does anyone have any idea what is causing this?

Answer 1

I was getting the same error with jQuery formvaliadator, but when I removed a console.log inside success: function, it worked.

Answer 2

One approach is to strip object and functions from main object. And stringify the simpler form

function simpleStringify (object){
    var simpleObject = {};
    for (var prop in object ){
        if (!object.hasOwnProperty(prop)){
            continue;
        }
        if (typeof(object[prop]) == 'object'){
            continue;
        }
        if (typeof(object[prop]) == 'function'){
            continue;
        }
        simpleObject[prop] = object[prop];
    }
    return JSON.stringify(simpleObject); // returns cleaned up JSON
};

Answer 3

I resolve this problem on NodeJS like this:

var util = require('util');

// Our circular object
var obj = {foo: {bar: null}, a:{a:{a:{a:{a:{a:{a:{hi: 'Yo!'}}}}}}}};
obj.foo.bar = obj;

// Generate almost valid JS object definition code (typeof string)
var str = util.inspect(b, {depth: null});

// Fix code to the valid state (in this example it is not required, but my object was huge and complex, and I needed this for my case)
str = str
    .replace(/<Buffer[ \w\.]+>/ig, '"buffer"')
    .replace(/\[Function]/ig, 'function(){}')
    .replace(/\[Circular]/ig, '"Circular"')
    .replace(/\{ \[Function: ([\w]+)]/ig, '{ $1: function $1 () {},')
    .replace(/\[Function: ([\w]+)]/ig, 'function $1(){}')
    .replace(/(\w+): ([\w :]+GMT\+[\w \(\)]+),/ig, '$1: new Date("$2"),')
    .replace(/(\S+): ,/ig, '$1: null,');

// Create function to eval stringifyed code
var foo = new Function('return ' + str + ';');

// And have fun
console.log(JSON.stringify(foo(), null, 4));