ColdFusion internally represents structure keys in uppercase when the keys are created using dot notation. Dot notation is typically how programmers write their code and is considered to be best practice when working with structures. To the same effect, ColdFusion’s implementation of serializeJSON() serializes your object with respect to case; therefore, we might end up with something like this:

<cfset struct = {} />
<cfset struct.foo = "bar" />
 
<cfdump var="#serializeJSON(struct)#" />
 
<!---
	Result:  {"FOO":"bar"}
--->

Bummer. You’d probably expect “FOO” to be lowercase since that’s how you wrote it, but unfortunately it’s uppercase according to CF. Serializing a query forces uppercase JSON keys as well because queries act and function similarly to structures. This is rather annoying seeing how JavaScript is case sensitive, and serializeJSON is the way to push data from CF to JS. jQuery UI’s Autocomplete is a fine example of a widget that was not designed with case in mind; your JSON is expected to be returned with either a label or value key or both… in lowercase. (more…)