If you’re using .Net 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);