Is it possible to submit nested objects in jQuery?

Is it possible to submit nested objects in jQuery?

Hi all,

I've been banging my head on a wall with this problem and I think it's come down to whether or not jQuery can do something for me.

I am attempting to save what we call a template.  This template is made up of sections.  Each section has a series of elements, including an array called children, which contains child sections.

The following json is an example of a template (in reality, a template is made up of over 80 of these sections):

  1. {
    "autotextId": 0,
    "canBeNull": "N",
    "children": [
        {
          "autotextId": 0,
          "canBeNull": "N",
          "children": [],
          "displayHeader": "N",
          "editable": "Y",
          "formatType": "Assessment",
          "helpText": "This is some <b>HTML<\/b> text.",
          "outlineSpecific": "N",
          "parentId": 274,
          "parentSectionId": 274,
          "requiresQa": "Y",
          "sectionId": 275,
          "sectionSectionId": 281,
          "sectionSeqNumber": 1,
          "sectionSourceUrl": null,
          "templateId": 101
        }
    ],
    "displayHeader": "Y",
    "editable": "N",
    "formatType": "Text",
    "helpText": null,
    "outlineSpecific": "N",
    "parentId": 200,
    "parentSectionId": 200,
    "requiresQa": "N",
    "sectionId": 274,
    "sectionSectionId": 280,
    "sectionSeqNumber": 8,
    "sectionSourceUrl": "Header",
    "templateId": 101
    }



































In attempting to save this with a POST via jQuery.ajax(), I am unable to get any data below the first level.

The result I get is this (printed out on my Java servlet side, which handles the http request):

  1. [autotextId] = [0]
    [sectionSourceUrl] = [Header]
    [children] = [[object Object]]
    [entityURL] = [http://localhost:8090/direct/msi-template/101]
    [sectionSectionId] = [200]
    [entityReference] = [/msi-template/101]
    [displayHeader] = [N]
    [parentSectionId] = [0]
    [sectionId] = [200]
    [helpText] = [Blah blah blah!]
    [no-cache] = [true]
    [templateId] = [101]
    [editable] = [N]
    [parentId] = [0]
    [entityId] = [101]
    [sectionSeqNumber] = [1]
    [formatType] = [Text]
    [requiresQa] = [N]
    [outlineSpecific] = [N]
    [canBeNull] = [N]



















You can see how the children parameter shows '[object Object]'.  For some reason, jQuery is parsing the array of children elements as an array of strings (when the object is further interrogated) and each string says '[object Object]'.

Is there a way to submit this nested object-style of json in jQuery and if so, how? 

I have read that you can submit an XML document, but this would be an option of very last resort if possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.