try parse JSON and catch error

[jumoog]

if JSON.parse fails it should return {}

maybe you can do someting like

    try {
      return JSON.parse(data);
    }
    catch (error) {
      return {};
    }

[jumoog]

in my case the server returns not json if the server is overloaded

[ethanent]

I'm not so sure that {} is really reasonable. Maybe null would be more apt, but then still I think that most users would want to know if the parsing failed with a proper error rather than just by receiving null.