Question: Attempting to deserialize JSON data and update each object's prototype and inherit a common function.

However, the following script throws error "people[0].getFullName is not a function". The prototype for deserialized objects appears to be undefined after assignment.

```
<html>
<head>
<script>
var json = '[ {"firstName": "John", "lastName": "Smith"}, {"firstName": "Nancy", "lastName": "Jones"} ]';
var people;
eval('people = ' + json);

function Person() { }

Person.prototype.getFullName = function() {
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
}

//assign prototype
for(var i=0; i < people.length; i++){
    people[i].prototype = new Person();
}

if(people[0].getFullName() !== 'John Smith')
    alert('Expected fullname to be John Smith but was ' + people[0].getFullName());
</script>
</head>
</html>

```

Answer: 
The `prototype` property is a property of *constructors*, not of *instances*. What you are looking for is the property **`__proto__`**:

```
people[i].__proto__ = new Person();

```

The bad news is that **it does not work in all browsers**. It does work in Firefox and Safari, it does not work in IE. An alternative is to use constructors to instantiate your array of people. Unfortunately you'll have to copy all properties:

```
function Person(obj) {
    for (var property in obj) {
        this[property] = obj[property];
    }
    return this;
}
Person.prototype.getFullName = function() {
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
}

var people;
eval('people = ' + json);
for(var i=0; i < people.length; i++) {
    people[i] = new Person(people[i]);
}

```
Basically, you have to get the JSON object INTO a Person object, and then the getFullName just applies. I've rewritten what you had slightly to work. There's probably even better ways, but I think this is what you were intending to do...

```
<html>
<head>
<script>
//NOTE: Sending around JSON arrays leaves bad security holes for non-IE browsers (__defineSetter__)
var json = '[ {"firstName": "John", "lastName": "Smith"}, {"firstName": "Nancy", "lastName": "Jones"} ]';
//Persons is just a temporary JSON array
var persons = eval(json);

//constructor takes optional object instance and copies all properties if it gets one
function Person(person) { 
    if (person) {
        for(var prop in person)
        this[prop] = person[prop];
    }
}

//Prototype applies to all Person objects
Person.prototype.getFullName = function() {
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
}

//Create People array
var people = new Array();
for(var i=0; i < persons.length; i++){
    people[i] = new Person(persons[i]);
}

//Now do your check
if(people[0].getFullName() !== 'John Smith')
    alert('Expected fullname to be John Smith but was ' + people[0].getFullName());

</script>
</head>
</html>

```