Expanding the length of JSON data returned from ASP.NET web services

A very small example this time, but one that can be very time consuming to find out. The basic example I described earlier works fine, but just try to send back a larger string. Suppose, you change the Hello World Method into this:

[WebMethod]
public string HelloWorld( string ToSomeone)
{
    StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
    while (b.Length < 50000)
    {
       b.AppendFormat("Hello World {0}. ", ToSomeone);
    }

    return b.ToString();
}

You get al LOT of "Hello Worlds". Now change 50000 into 200000... you get no error message, but in fact, you get no response at all. To solve this, you need to delve into your web.config. Make sure the JSON configuration declaration at the top looks like this. I highlighted the important part:

<configSections>
  <sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35">
    <sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35">
        <section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/>
      <sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35">
        <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />
        <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
        <section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
      </sectionGroup>
    </sectionGroup>
  </sectionGroup>
</configSections>

This may look a bit intimidating, but just copy it. In the system.web part you can define the following tag:

<system.web.extensions>
  <scripting>
    <webServices>
      <jsonSerialization maxJsonLength="999999999"/>
    </webServices>
  </scripting>
</system.web.extensions>

And there you go. The number 999999999 is the absolute max value - so if you send stuff to your client longer than that, you have to think of something else. But for the mapping applications I made on Google Maps this works fine. Bear in mind that sending VERY large portions of data can degrade your user experience considerably, although the asynchronous nature of the ASP.NET JSON service might diminish that problem. By the way, in the latest templates for ASP.NET Ajax enabled web sites the whole configuration declaration is already included, as well as the declaration for the json serialization - but it is commented out. It looks something like this.

<!-- Uncomment this line to customize maxJsonLength and add a custom converter -->
<!--
<jsonSerialization maxJsonLength="500">
  <converters>
    <add name="ConvertMe" type="Acme.SubAcme.ConvertMeTypeConverter"/>
  </converters>
</jsonSerialization>
-->

You have to delete the part that I printed in italics, because that is just an example that does not point to an actual class