Rails: Respond with js to Ajax request

Question

I encountered some weird behaviour when using an ajax request to get a response from a rails controller action.

$.ajax({
    type: 'GET',
    url: '/notifications',
    success: function(result) {
        eval(result);
    }
});

def index
    respond_to do |format|
        format.html { redirect_to root_url, alert: 'Page not accessible' }
        format.js
    end
end

So this respond_to block works fine when using requests with rails' remote: true option, but with the ajax call it just redirects the request to root_url.

When specifying json as dataType of the Ajax request. The so returns the JavaScript just fine, but because it is not valid json, eval() does not run it.

Is there a way too either start a rails remote request from within JavaScript or specify a data type with which the returned JavaScript is executable?

Even specifying dataType: 'text/javascript', in the ajax call does not do the trick.

@jonhue Did you try to check `if request.xhr?` in your index-action? — cnnr, Aug 13 '17 at 07:41
@pavan Thanks for your suggestion! I'll try it when I get home later — heroxav, Aug 13 '17 at 07:42
@cnnr No, why would I do that? `respond_to` should take care of that. — heroxav, Aug 13 '17 at 07:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 13 '17 at 08:29

5

So this respond_to block works fine when using requests with rails' remote: true option, but with the ajax call it just redirects the request to root_url

So the request format that is coming to the controller is HTML not JS. Using dataType: 'script' generates the request as JS and should fix your problem.

$.ajax({
  type: 'GET',
  dataType: 'script',
  url: '/notifications'
});

answered Aug 13 '17 at 08:29

Pavan

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Hmm.. It seems like it works - the ajax request returns the requested javascript. But at the same time the success callback does not execute it. – heroxav Aug 14 '17 at 15:37
@jonhue What do you have in success callback? – Pavan Aug 14 '17 at 15:39
I added it to the original post. – heroxav Aug 14 '17 at 17:30
@jonhue Can you try response instead of result? – Pavan Aug 14 '17 at 17:31

Rails: Respond with js to Ajax request

1 Answers1