Accessing ASP classic Collection variable in JQuery

Question

Hi guys im just new with asp classic and jquery and am just wondering if there is a way wherein i can pass my collection variables to jquery. my goal is to make the variables slide down one at a time. I came across the .slideDown function on jquery so i tried using it but doesn't seem to work so i guess what's wrong is my mark up... any help will be greatly appreciated.

ASP CODE:

        <%

        Dim objDictionary, Key,searchWord, myVar,a,i, break
        searchWord = request.QueryString("searchWord")
        break = Response.write("<br />")


        Set objDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
        objDictionary.CompareMode=1
        objDictionary.Add "Hello","hello"
        objDictionary.Add "Age","age"
        objDictionary.Add "height","height"
        objDictionary.Add "sample","sample"
        objDictionary.Add "words","words"



        if objDictionary.Exists(searchWord) then
            objDictionary.Remove(searchWord)
           a = objDictionary.Keys

            for i=0 to objDictionary.Count-1
            Response.Write(a(i)) 
            break

            next
            set objDictionary=nothing
        else 
            a = objDictionary.Keys

            for i=0 to objDictionary.Count-1
            Response.Write(a(i)) 
            break
            next
            set objDictionary=nothing

        end if      


        %>

JQUERY CODE:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
    $("#toFall").slideDown("slow");});
</script>

Answer 1

Have you tried placing each dictionary key in some kind of DOM container, like a div - each of which are children of #toFall, eg:

   Response.write "<div id='#toFall'>"  
   for i=0 to objDictionary.Count-1
        Response.Write "<div>" + (a(i)) + "</div>"
   next 
   Response.write "</div>"

^^Please double check the syntax - my VBScript is rusty. Also - are you sure you want that break in the loop - doesn't that mean only one write occurs?

Answer 2

Here is a generic method that will send any classic ASP collection (with Keys and values) to be a JavaScript collection:

Sub CollectionToJavaScript(oCollection, sClientSideName) 
    Dim blnFirst
    blnFirst = True
    Response.Write("<" & "script" & " type=""text/javascript"">")
    Response.Write("var " & sClientSideName & " = {")
    For Each key In objDictionary.Keys
        If Not(blnFirst) Then Response.Write(", ")
        Response.Write("""" & key & """: """ & objDictionary(key) & """")
        blnFirst = False
    Next
    Response.Write("};")
    Response.Write("</" & "script>")
End Sub

First parameter is the collection, second is the desired name of the client side variable to hold the JavaScript collection.

This will create client side complex object that can be later accessed using the name you provided as the second parameter of the above method.

General way to debug that it's working:

<script type="text/javascript">
for (var key in myCollection) {
    alert("key is " + key + " and value is " + myCollection[key]); 
}
</script>

In your case, you should call this method like that after populating the collection:

Call CollectionToJavaScript (objDictionary, "myCollection")

Then in your jQuery, assuming you want to slide down all the keys (ie all keys are valid DOM elements) have such code:

$(document).ready(function() {
    for (var key in myCollection) {
        $("#" + key).slideDown("slow");
    }
});

If you also need the value associated with each key, access it by using myCollection[key] in the loop.