Send array in ajax query

Question

I'm trying to send an array from JavaScript to PHP with the $.post() method of Jquery.

I've tried jQuery.serialize(), jQuery.serializeArray(), JSON.stringify() and all of them didn't work.

Here is my code:

$.post("ajax/"+action+"_xml.php",{'array': array},function(data){console.log(data);});

the array looks like this :

array["type"]
array["vars"]["name"]
array["vars"]["email"]

array["vars"] has more than 2 elements.

The result in my php $_POST variable is an empty array (length 0).

Answer 1

I would suggest the following structure on the data which you pass:

Javascript:

var DTO = { 
 type: [1,2,3],
 vars: { 
 name: 'foo',
 email: '[email protected]'
 }
};
var stringifiedData = JSON.stringify(DTO); 
// will result in:
//{"type":[1,2,3],"vars":{"name":"foo","email":"[email protected]"}} 
$.post("ajax/"+action+"_xml.php",{'DTO': stringifiedData },function(data){
 console.log(data);
});

PHP:

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate');
header('Expires: 1997年7月26日 05:00:00 GMT');
header('Content-type: application/json');
$DTO = $_POST['DTO'];
if(isset($DTO))
{
 $assocResult = json_decode($DTO, true);
 var_dump($assocResult); //do stuff with $assocResult here
}

Passing true as the second argument to json_decode will make it return an associative array.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php

• Wanceslas: Thanks, I did like you. I built an object instead of an array and I've used JSON.stringify and in my php I've used json_decode. Everything is working perfectly, Tanks alot.
• ernie: +1 for the sample and the detail on both sides . . . would have been perfect if it explained why the previous method wasn't working . . .

Answer 2

I'm not sure whether you can post an array like that.

Splitting it should work just fine:

$.post("ajax/"+action+"_xml.php",{'type': array["type"], 'name' : array["vars"]["name"],...},function(data){console.log(data);});

• Jeff Noel: This way might not be the best considering an array with dozens of keys. (possibility)

Answer 3

You need to turn your javascript array into a string, as that's all the post() method accepts. Most people do this by converting their array to JSON.

• Johan: Since there is nothing wrong with your answer, here's an upvote to nullify it ;)