jQuery POST. Can't get Request parameters using custom httphandler

I have a jQuery post method with JSON data included.

In my httphandler, in the processRequest method, Request["Operation"] is null and none of my data is posted. I am in a SharePoint 2010 environment.

 public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
        try开发者_开发问答
        {
            string operation = context.Request["Operation"]; // Returns null

My JavaScript is as follows:

function CallService(serviceData, callBack) {

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: ServiceUrl,
    data: { Operation : "activate"},
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
    dataType: "json",
    success: function (result) {
        callBack(result);
    },
    error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert(XMLHttpRequest.responseText);
    }
});

In the debugger in VS I can't find the posted values when I evaluate the HttpContext. In Firebug, the value is posted as valid JSON data. Any reason why I cant get the parameters?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks for all your input guys. I have decided to read the input stream of the request instead and get a key value pair from that. I can access all my params that way.

I am also using the $.toJSON() function to pass my parameters to the Ajax call. The JsonConvert class is from JSON.Net assembly from Newtonsoft. I use it a lot and would highly recommend using it if you use any json serialisation stuff.

By the way, changing the quotes around the input params did work. I want to keep using one generic ajax function and use $.toJSON function and generally pass an object with all my parameters as the post data.

TextReader reader = new StreamReader(context.Request.InputStream);
        Dictionary<string, string> requestParams = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(reader.ReadToEnd());      
        try
        {

            switch (requestParams["operation"])

I changed contentType to application/x-www-form-urlencoded and it did a trick

Maybe you're being restricted by the Same Origin Policy. Is ServiceUrl at the same hostname and domain as the calling page?

Why are you overriding the contentType option in your $.ajax() call? If you omit that, do you still see null being sent in for the Operation value?

Also, I think the proper formatting for JSON data would be:

{"Operation": "activate"}

I think the JSON spec is specific about that, but most frameworks aren't as strict.