Custom JavaScriptConverter for DateTime?

Question

I have an object, it has a DateTime property... I want to pass that object from an .ashx handler back to a webpage via AJAX/JSON... I don\'t want to use 3rd party controls..

Answer 1

Here's an enhancement for the accepted answer.

Using generics, passing a type and using reflection to determine the datetime properties.

public class ExtendedJavaScriptConverter : JavaScriptConverter where T : new()
{
    private const string _dateFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy";

    public override IEnumerable SupportedTypes
    {
        get
        {
            return new[] { typeof(T) };
        }
    }

    public override object Deserialize(IDictionary dictionary, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
    {
        T p = new T();

        var props = typeof(T).GetProperties();

        foreach (string key in dictionary.Keys)
        {
            var prop = props.Where(t => t.Name == key).FirstOrDefault();
            if (prop != null)
            {
                if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(DateTime))
                {
                    prop.SetValue(p, DateTime.ParseExact(dictionary[key] as string, _dateFormat, DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo), null);

                }
                else
                {
                    prop.SetValue(p, dictionary[key], null);
                }
            }
        }                  

        return p;
    }      

    public override IDictionary Serialize(object obj, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
    {
        T p = (T)obj;
        IDictionary serialized = new Dictionary();

        foreach (PropertyInfo pi in typeof(T).GetProperties())
        {
            if (pi.PropertyType == typeof(DateTime))
            {
                serialized[pi.Name] = ((DateTime)pi.GetValue(p, null)).ToString(_dateFormat);
            }
            else
            {
                serialized[pi.Name] = pi.GetValue(p, null);
            }

        }

        return serialized;
    }

    public static JavaScriptSerializer GetSerializer() 
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        serializer.RegisterConverters(new[] { new ExtendedJavaScriptConverter() });

        return serializer;
    }
}

Usage is simple:

 JavaScriptSerializer serialiser = ExtendedJavaScriptConverter.GetSerializer();

Hope that helps someone.