How to fix error: The message received from the server could not be parsed

Question

We have a Sharepoint solution that uses AJAX. The button that triggers this is inside an update panel.

One of the things that we do is generate a MS Word document, t

Answer 1

I've struggled with this for a few hours. Doing an ajax request within my WebForms Code-Behind file wasn't working & using an UpdatePanel resulted in that annoying error and I wasn't able to find a solution. Finally I found a solution that works!

• Somewhere in your project create an .ashx (Generic Handler) file. I created mine within a top level services folder so: Services\EventsHandler.ashx. When you do this you should end up with both an .ashx & .ashx.cs file.
• Inside the ashx.cs file you'll find a ProcessRequest method where you can put all of your code.

• You can call this method doing something similar to the following in your javascript file:

  $('#MyButton').click(function () {
      var zipCode = $('#FBZipBox').val();
  
      $.getJSON('/Services/EventsHandler.ashx?zip=' + zipCode, function (data) {
          var items = [];
          $.each(data.Results, function (key, item) {
          items.push('item.Date');
      });
  }).complete(function () {
      // More Logic
  });
  return false;});
  

• Within your ashx.cs file you can access the query parameters using:

  var category = context.Request.QueryString["zipCode"];

• You can then return the result using:

  context.Response.Write(yourResponseString);