DateTime, .net JavaScriptSerializer, JSON and Javascript

If you're using JavaScriptSerializer and are having trouble handling the way it serialized DateTime types to JSON then read on, this might help.

Scenario

On a page I have:

• an html textbox element set as a JQuery datepicker
• a button that makes an AJAX call and returns a date and populates the above control
• The method I call on that ajax request is using the .net JavaScriptSerializer that serializes dates the following way:
  

  /Date(628318530718)/
  

• Im using the following to populate the textbox:
  

  $('#txtDate').datepicker('setDate', item.Date);
  

Problem

On IE the textbox displays the the following: NaN/NaN/NaN
Somehow FF is able to unwrap this and show the correct value on the textbox.
Nice! :(

Solution

We must unwrap that value our-selfs like shown bellow:

myDate =  new Date(parseFloat(item.Date.slice(6, 19)));
$('#txtDate').datepicker('setDate', myDate);