diff --git a/include/class.ajax.php b/include/class.ajax.php
index c852a551734a572662e75de6a6d18c43e1bc8892..3be9713d89be8d1d2391f4c49c22919a5baccf78 100644
--- a/include/class.ajax.php
+++ b/include/class.ajax.php
@@ -38,9 +38,7 @@ class AjaxController extends ApiController {
      * Convert a PHP array into a JSON-encoded string
      */
     function json_encode($what) {
-        require_once (INCLUDE_DIR.'class.json.php');
-        $encoder = new JsonDataEncoder();
-        return $encoder->encode($what);
+        return Format::json_encode($what);
     }
 
     function encode($what) {
diff --git a/include/class.format.php b/include/class.format.php
index 3b841a4a585db66be41e2485acd5cf866b319d00..4c73d5188f5c1ab46e5b4d712f80c57f7106c9cc 100644
--- a/include/class.format.php
+++ b/include/class.format.php
@@ -99,6 +99,15 @@ class Format {
             return $filename;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Json Encoder
+     *
+     */
+    function json_encode($what) {
+        require_once (INCLUDE_DIR.'class.json.php');
+        return JsonDataEncoder::encode($what);
+    }
+
 	function phone($phone) {
 
 		$stripped= preg_replace("/[^0-9]/", "", $phone);