How to use jQuery to call an ASP.NET web service?

I use this method as a wrapper so that I can send parameters. Also using the variables in the top of the method allows it to be minimized at a higher ratio and allows for some code reuse if making multiple similar calls.

function InfoByDate(sDate, eDate){
    var divToBeWorkedOn = "#AjaxPlaceHolder";
    var webMethod = "http://MyWebService/Web.asmx/GetInfoByDates";
    var parameters = "{'sDate':'" + sDate + "','eDate':'" + eDate + "'}";

    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: webMethod,
        data: parameters,
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "json",
        success: function(msg) {
            $(divToBeWorkedOn).html(msg.d);
        },
        error: function(e){
            $(divToBeWorkedOn).html("Unavailable");
        }
    });
}

I hope that helps.

Please note that this requires the 3.5 framework to expose JSON webmethods that can be consumed in this manner.

Here is an example to call your webservice using jQuery.get:

$.get("http://domain.com/webservice.asmx", { name: "John", time: "2pm" },
  function(data){
    alert("Data Loaded: " + data);
  });

In the example above, we call "webservice.asmx", passing two parameters: name and time. Then, getting the service output in the call back function.

I don't know about that specific SharePoint web service, but you can decorate a page method or a web service with <WebMethod()> (in VB.NET) to ensure that it serializes to JSON. You can probably just wrap the method that webservice.asmx uses internally, in your own web service.

Dave Ward has a nice walkthrough on this.