c# - Assign a raw HTML tag to a JavaScript variable -

i'm working on existing asp.net application , came across interesting piece of javascript i've been wondering about.

a few variables being declared literals, , aren't in strings. example, done:

<script type="text/javascript">       var jsondata = <asp:literal id="myjsonobject" runat="server" />;     ...... </script> 

and in server side code(c#), these tags being altered jsontextwriter this:

var stringbuilder = new stringbuilder(); var stringwriter = new stringwriter(stringbuilder);  using (var jsonwriter = new jsontextwriter(stringwriter)) {     jsonwriter.formatting = formatting.indented;      jsonwriter.writestartobject();     jsonwriter.writepropertyname("someproperty");     jsonwriter.writevalue("somevalue");     jsonwriter.writeendobject(); }  myjsonobject.value = stringbuilder.tostring(); 

this in turn causing jsondata variable able used json object in client side code.

what i've noticed is, if put single quotes around tag , change to:

<script type="text/javascript">       var jsondata = '<asp:literal id="myjsonobject" runat="server" />';     ...... </script> 

this doesn't work it's no longer coming across json object, actual string. however, expect, when it's plain tag, i'm receiving several syntax errors visual studio.

so question is:

is that's acceptable or should avoid keeping things around? yeah, it works, doesn't right me.

i've found few different questions seem related here, none seem provide insight on particular situation.

in short: yes, looks acceptable. appears 1 of intended use-cases of <asp:literal> tag. since you're writing javascript object literal, won't need single-quotes, since change how code works.

the thing note <asp:literal> isn't html tag, , therefore not make user is. <asp:literal> tag gets pre-processed asp.net before page sent user (since have runat="server" specified); therefore, processed regardless of surrounding content , replaced entirely resolved string value. thus, rendered page transformed (on server-side) this:

var jsondata = <asp:literal id="myjsonobject" runat="server" />; 

to this:

var jsondata = {     "someproperty" : "somevalue" }; 

this way of transferring rich data constructed on server-side client-side javascript without having write out raw javascript page.

if wanted json-formatted string instead, doing you're doing , calling json.stringify(jsondata) afterwards best bet.