json to nested unordered list

Question

I am trying to convert a JSON into an unordered list in jQuery.This is my JSON data.

var myJSON = \"{name:\\\"Director\\\",children:[name:\\\"Exe Director1\\\",n         


        

Answer 1

You can use recursive function as follows. Everytime the function is called it returns a "UL", along with its child "LI".

function generateMenu(data) {

    var ul = $("<ul>");

        $(data).each(function (i, dir) {
             var li = $('<li>' + dir.name + '</li>');
             ul.append(li);

            if (dir.children != null && dir.children.length > 0) {
                li.append(generateMenu(dir.children));
            }

        });

    return ul;
};

Use it as :

$("#some-div").append(generateMenu(myJsonData));

The Json is,

var myJsonData = JSON.parse('{"name": "Director","children": [{ "name": "Exe Director1" },{ "name": "Exe Director2" },{"name": "Exe Director3","children": [{ "name": "Sub Director1" },{ "name": "Sub Director2" },{"name": "Sub Director3","children": [{ "name": "Cameraman 1" },{ "name": "Cameraman 2" }]}]}]}');

Answer 2

This is exactly what you need:

Use the jQuery template API. This was once part of jQuery but is currently only available as plugin. However, I think jQuery will adopt this or a similar technique again soon.

http://api.jquery.com/category/plugins/templates/

Its super easy to use:

$.tmpl("template", jsonObject)

Here a small basic template example:

$.tmpl(
    "<li><b>${Id}</b>${Name}</li>", 
    [{Id:1, Name:"Werner"}, {Id:2, Name:"Klaus"}]
);

This will result in the following jQuery HTML element that can be appended to anywhere: