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I am trying to pass a Javascript array to my apex controller. I know you can pass a string from Javascript through the use of hidden input field and apex action function (and I have used it in the past) but trying a similar thing for arrays did not work. E.g

<apex:page controller="MyController" id = "MyPage">
    <apex:form id="myForm">
        <button type="button" id="B" onclick = "setHidden()">Set Array!</button>
        <apex:inputHidden value="{!StringArr}" id="myHiddenField"/>
        <apex:actionFunction name="passArryToCon" action="{!MyConMethod}" rerender="myForm"/>
    </apex:form>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        j$ = jQuery.noConflict();
        function setHidden() {
           var StrArr = ['product 1', 'product 2', 'product 3'];
           document.getElementById('{!$Component.MyPage.myForm.myHiddenField}').value = (StrArr); //**masterpagefullwidth component id** 
           passArryToCon();
    }     
    </script>
</apex:page>

My Controller

public with sharing class MyController {
    public List<string> StringArr {get; set;}
    public PageReference MyConMethod() {
        system.debug('Passed in value: '+StringArr);
        return null;
    }
}

Could someone suggest a way to get this working? Thanks.

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3 Answers 3

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Passing an array natively wouldn't be easy, if it is even possible. Personally, I'd convert the array to JSON, then on the controller side, use JSON to turn it back to an array. You could also use page parameters, such as with an action function, but you'd ask have to convey from a string to an array.

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It sounds like assigning to a List<String> through an apex:actionFunction would suffice for his needs. What exactly do you mean by natively? –  Adrian Larson Jan 28 at 17:36
    
The only way you could pass an array would be to bind to a select list with multiple attribute set to true. However, Visualforce validates the values given to it on form submit, so that method would only with if the list of known values were already present in the view state, and even then, it's a massive amount of dom manipulation compared to a simple JSON serialize and deserialize. –  sfdcfox Jan 28 at 18:11
    
Thanks guys - I think the JSON serialize and deserialize might be the way to go. I will try it out and update this space. Thanks again. –  CescFab Jan 28 at 18:37
up vote 0 down vote

One option would be to use Javascript Remoting. Instead of passing the array to a variable, you could just call an apex method using javascript remoting, and pass the array as a parameter.

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Unless you need access to the view state. Then you'd need something different. –  sfdcfox Jan 28 at 17:29
up vote 0 down vote

This can be achieved without a @RemoteAction if you want to stick to stateful methods by using apex:actionFunction. If you were not using primitives in your array, you would need to convert to/from JSON.

<apex:form>
    <apex:actionFunction name="afConMethod" action="{!MyConMethod}">
        <apex:param value="" name="array" assignTo="{!StringArr}" />
    </apex:actionFunction>
</apex:form>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function setHidden() {
       var StrArr = ['product 1', 'product 2', 'product 3'];
       afConMethod(StrArr);
    }     
</script>
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