Redirect after POST using the Location header with jQuery

Question

I want to redirect to the target using the Location header with jQuery 1.7.

My code looks like this

$('#creationLink').click(function(){
  $.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: '/',
    success: function(data, textStatus, xhr) {
      window.location = xhr.getResponseHeader("Location");
    }
  })
});

... but it does not work. xhr.getResponseHeader("Location") is null.

HTTP headers:

POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:9000
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Content-Length: 0

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Location: http://localhost:9000/vIRdD0PdWp4/bearbeiten
Content-Length: 0

How can I redirect using the location header?

What does the response look like? Can you dump the data from the Chrome network tab? — Jivings, Jun 04 '12 at 20:10
Are you sure that the page you're referencing is sending a `Location` header? — Death, Jun 04 '12 at 20:12
From the [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/xmlhttprequest#getResponseHeader%28%29): _Returns the string containing the text of the specified header, or null if either the response has not yet been received or the header doesn't exist in the response._ — Zuul, Jun 04 '12 at 20:15
possible duplicate of [jquery getResponseHeader always returns 'undefined'?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4369987/jquery-getresponseheader-always-returns-undefined) — Zuul, Jun 04 '12 at 20:27

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

AFAIK, browsers are supposed to, during an XHR, transparently follow the redirect in the response header. That is, the XHR will actually look at the response, see the Location header, and proceed to magically run a second request for that URI. Only when it has the result of that will it give you anything at all, and what it gives you is the result of the second request.

See this stackoverflow answer!

So, if you need a redirect feature, you'll have to make the thing you request return the target URI in some other way, e.g. as a JSON response.

See this stackoverflow solution!

PS. reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/#infrastructure-for-the-send-method

@Jan Krüger, I've been reading about this and found an answer an a solution for this problem. Since there was no need to post a new answer here with the same content as yours, I've placed the links to complement your information! — Zuul, Jun 04 '12 at 20:31

Redirect after POST using the Location header with jQuery

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