How do I format a Microsoft JSON date?

Question

I'm taking my first crack at Ajax with jQuery. I'm getting my data onto my page, but I'm having some trouble with the JSON data that is returned for Date data types. Basically, I'm getting a string back that looks like this:

/Date(1224043200000)/

From someone totally new to JSON - How do I format this to a short date format? Should this be handled somewhere in the jQuery code? I've tried the jQuery.UI.datepicker plugin using $.datepicker.formatDate() without any success.

FYI: Here's the solution I came up with using a combination of the answers here:

function getMismatch(id) {
  $.getJSON("Main.aspx?Callback=GetMismatch",
    { MismatchId: id },

    function (result) {
      $("#AuthMerchId").text(result.AuthorizationMerchantId);
      $("#SttlMerchId").text(result.SettlementMerchantId);
      $("#CreateDate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.AppendDts)));
      $("#ExpireDate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.ExpiresDts)));
      $("#LastUpdate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.LastUpdateDts)));
      $("#LastUpdatedBy").text(result.LastUpdateNt);
      $("#ProcessIn").text(result.ProcessIn);
    }
  );

  return false;
}

function formatJSONDate(jsonDate) {
  var newDate = dateFormat(jsonDate, "mm/dd/yyyy");
  return newDate;
}

This solution got my object from the callback method and displayed the dates on the page properly using the date format library.

Answer 1

FYI, for anyone using Python on the server side: datetime.datetime().ctime() returns a string that is natively parsable by "new Date()". That is, if you create a new datetime.datetime instance (such as with datetime.datetime.now), the string can be included in the JSON string, and then that string can be passed as the first argument to the Date constructor. I haven't yet found any exceptions, but I haven't tested it too rigorously, either.

Answer 2

I get the date like this:

"/Date(1276290000000+0300)/"

In some examples the date is in slightly different formats:

"/Date(12762900000000300)/"
"Date(1276290000000-0300)"

etc.

So I came up with the following RegExp:

/\/+Date\(([\d+]+)\)\/+/

and the final code is:

var myDate = new Date(parseInt(jsonWcfDate.replace(/\/+Date\(([\d+-]+)\)\/+/, '$1')));

Hope it helps.

Update: I found this link from Microsoft: How do I Serialize Dates with JSON?

This seems like the one we are all looking for.

Answer 3

If you say in JavaScript,

var thedate = new Date(1224043200000);
alert(thedate);

you will see that it's the correct date, and you can use that anywhere in JavaScript code with any framework.

Answer 4

Just to add another approach here, the "ticks approach" that WCF takes is prone to problems with timezones if you're not extremely careful such as described here and in other places. So I'm now using the ISO 8601 format that both .NET & JavaScript duly support that includes timezone offsets. Below are the details:

In WCF/.NET:

Where CreationDate is a System.DateTime; ToString("o") is using .NET's Round-trip format specifier that generates an ISO 8601-compliant date string

new MyInfo {
    CreationDate = r.CreationDate.ToString("o"),
};

In JavaScript

Just after retrieving the JSON I go fixup the dates to be JavaSript Date objects using the Date constructor which accepts an ISO 8601 date string...

$.getJSON(
    "MyRestService.svc/myinfo",
    function (data) {
        $.each(data.myinfos, function (r) {
            this.CreatedOn = new Date(this.CreationDate);
        });
        // Now each myinfo object in the myinfos collection has a CreatedOn field that is a real JavaScript date (with timezone intact).
       alert(data.myinfos[0].CreationDate.toLocaleString());
    }
)

Once you have a JavaScript date you can use all the convenient and reliable Date methods like toDateString, toLocaleString, etc.

Answer 5

A late post, but for those who searched this post.

Imagine this:

    [Authorize(Roles = "Administrator")]
    [Authorize(Roles = "Director")]
    [Authorize(Roles = "Human Resources")]
    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult GetUserData(string UserIdGuidKey)
    {
        if (UserIdGuidKey!= null)
        {
            var guidUserId = new Guid(UserIdGuidKey);
            var memuser = Membership.GetUser(guidUserId);
            var profileuser = Profile.GetUserProfile(memuser.UserName);
            var list = new {
                              UserName = memuser.UserName,
                              Email = memuser.Email ,
                              IsApproved = memuser.IsApproved.ToString() ,
                              IsLockedOut = memuser.IsLockedOut.ToString() ,
                              LastLockoutDate = memuser.LastLockoutDate.ToString() ,
                              CreationDate = memuser.CreationDate.ToString() ,
                              LastLoginDate = memuser.LastLoginDate.ToString() ,
                              LastActivityDate = memuser.LastActivityDate.ToString() ,
                              LastPasswordChangedDate = memuser.LastPasswordChangedDate.ToString() ,
                              IsOnline = memuser.IsOnline.ToString() ,
                              FirstName = profileuser.FirstName ,
                              LastName = profileuser.LastName ,
                              NickName = profileuser.NickName ,
                              BirthDate = profileuser.BirthDate.ToString() ,
            };
            return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
        }
        return Redirect("Index");
    }

As you can see, I'm utilizing C# 3.0's feature for creating the "Auto" Generics. It's a bit lazy, but I like it and it works. Just a note: Profile is a custom class I've created for my web application project.

Answer 6

Mootools solution:

new Date(Date(result.AppendDts)).format('%x')

Requires mootools-more. Tested using mootools-1.2.3.1-more on Firefox 3.6.3 and IE 7.0.5730.13