Ajax request is not sending data over POST

Question

I've got the following Javascript function

http_post = function (url, data, success) {
    var json_data = JSON.stringify(data);

    return $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: url,
        data: json_data,
        dataType: "json",
        contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
        success: success,
        fail: function(sender, message, details) {
            console.log(sender, message, details);
        }
    });
}

Which I am calling like this

$('#teammate_search_input').keyup(delay(function (e) {
    var value = $(this).val();

    http_post("{{ \Path::href('roster', 'search_name') }}", {name: value}, function(data) {
        console.log(data);
    });

}, 500));

Which is hitting this PHP script

if(!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) && strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) == 'xmlhttprequest') {
    $download = $this->model('download');
    $results = $download->search_teammate($_POST['name']);
    echo json_encode(['term' => $_POST['name'], 'results' => $results]);
}

Which is supposed to simply pull a list of users with a name that matches the input. This is all working fine (I get the response I am expecting), except the term is always set to null, so it returns a list of all users.

Result:

{term: null, results: Array(5)}

It appears as though the data is not being sent over the request.

Things I've tried:

Changed {name: value} to {name: 'test'} (2nd param of function call)
Removed the var json_data line and replaced data: json_data, with data: data

Why is my data not being sent over the request?

JSON in PHP is not put on the $_GET or $_POST. You have to read it from the request yourself — Taplar, Jan 08 '20 at 17:22
Is your PHP endpoint configured to accept JSON? I don't believe this is the case by default (assuming you're not using a server-side library or framework). Try just send form-urlencoded data; ie. remove `contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",` and use `data: data` without calling `JSON.stringify()` on it — Rory McCrossan, Jan 08 '20 at 17:22
Related: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18866571/receive-json-post-with-php — Taplar, Jan 08 '20 at 17:23

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '20 at 17:26

Is your PHP endpoint configured to accept JSON? I don't believe this is the case by default (assuming you're not using a server-side library or framework).

You can instead send form-urlencoded data. To do that remove contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8", and use data: data without calling JSON.stringify() on it, like this:

let http_post = function(url, data, success) {
  return $.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: url,
    data: data,
    dataType: "json",
    success: success,
    fail: function(sender, message, details) {
      console.log(sender, message, details);
    }
  });
}

Note that this makes your function almost entirely redundant, but I left it in anyway.

Ajax request is not sending data over POST

1 Answers1