Sending json to symfony controller

Question

I need to pass json data to my Symfony Controller. My ajax function looks like this:

var data = '{"firstname":"John"}';
$.ajax({ 
type: "POST", 
url: save_url, //path to controller action 
data: {json:data},
success: function(response) {
 // Do something 
}
}); 

In my controller, I try to get my data through:

public function createAction(Request $request) {
 $data = $this->getRequest()->get('firstname'); 
 return $this->render('MyBundle:Counter:test.html.twig', array(
 'data' => $data 
 )); 

Just to see if this works, I send $data to be echoed in a template. In Firebug I can see the data being sent and everything seems to work, but $data is empty and nothing is echoed. Where am I doing this wrong?

EDIT: When I check the response in Fireburg console, I see my data there, in place, but it never appears in the template. var_dump($data) tells that $data is null. So, it seems data is being sent but the controller ignores it.

• Marek: Shouldn't it be just $request->get('json'); ?

Answer 1

As Marek noticed:

$this->getRequest()

already returns the request object, you're accessing the request property of the request, that doesn't add up. Either try:

$data = $this->request->get('json');

Or use:

$data = $this->getRequest()->get('json');

You can, of course assign the return value of $this->getRequest() to a variable, and call the get method on that var from there on end... anyway, here's my initial answer, it does contain some more tips, and considerations you may find useful:

You should be able to get the data this way, though AJAX requests + echoing in a template? That does sound a bit strange. I don't see you passing the $data variable to a $this->render call anywhere.

This is a copy-paste bit from a controller action in one of my projects. It works just fine there:

public function indexAction()
{
 if (!$this->getRequest()->isXmlHttpRequest())
 {//check if request is AJAX request, if not redirect
 return $this->redirect(
 $this->generateUrl('foo_bar_homepage')//changed this, of course
 );
 }
 $id = $this->getRequest()->get('id',false);//works fine

However, I can't begin to grasp why you're doing this:

 var data = '{"firstname":"John"}';

Why not simply go for:

$.ajax({
 type: "POST",
 url: url,//post how you get this URL please...
 data: {firstname: 'John'},//jQ will sort this out for you
 success: function(response)
 {
 console.log(response);
 }
 error: function()
 {
 console.log('an error occured');
 console.log(arguments);//get debugging!
 }
});

Then, in your controller you're able to:

$this->getRequest()->get('firstname');//it should be John

You could even pass {json:{firstname: 'john'}} as the data param to $.ajax, the only difference in your controller will be, that you have to do this:

$data = $this->getRequest()->get('json');
$firstName = $data['firstname'];

That should work just fine, unless there's somthing you're not telling us :)

RECAP:
This is what I'd write:

public function createAction()
{//no Request param in controller
 if (!$this->getRequest()->isXmlHttpRequest())
 {//no ajax request, no play...
 $this->redirect(
 $this->generateUrl('homepage_route')
 );
 }
 $data = $this->getRequest()->get('firstname');
 //return json response:
 return new Response(json_encode(array('dataReceived' => $data));
 //return rendered HTML page:
 return $this->render('MyBundle:Counter:test.html.twig', array(
 'data' => $data 
 ));
}

Of course, then the JS code should read:

$.ajax({ 
 type: "POST", 
 url: 'route/to/create'
 data: {firstname:'John'},
 success: function(response)
 {
 console.log(response);
 }
});

I have tested this, and I see no reason why this shouldn't work. It works just fine for me...

• tofu: I´ve tried everything in your examples, but the result is still empty. I updated my question.
• Elias Van Ootegem: @tofu: You're not showing us how you're getting the data. jQ also has well documented default behaviour: $.ajax sends the data as x-www-form-urlencoded mime-type, so you needn't decode it. Even if you were to send the data as JSON, I do believe Symfony decodes it for you. Please add the code you're using to decode to your question, so we can verify that
• tofu: But the main problem still is the request result is empty. I´m not decoding yet, I only thought that I might need to do that. The first step is to make sure that I CAN send data to my controller.
• Elias Van Ootegem: @tofu: of course, but if you don't show us how you're trying to get the data into your controller (how you're assigning to $data), we can't say for sure there's no mistake being made there, can we? you've just pasted $data = //get json and decode, which doesn't show how you're assiging anything to $data. I need to see what you're doing there
• tofu: I removed that because my original code was wrong. I have updated with one of your suggestions.

Answer 2

Please note this was @EliasVanOotegem original example but there are some obvious steps missing

in the controller i'm reading a few replies as in "I cannot see how this works as i'm getting null" this is because your not correctly keying your object.

i.e.

var data = { name : 'john' };
$.ajax({
 type: "POST",
 url: url,//post how you get this URL please...
 data: {json : data},//jQ will sort this out for you
 success: function(response)
 {
 console.log(response);
 }
 error: function()
 {
 console.log('an error occured');
 console.log(arguments);//get debugging!
 }
});

as you can now see accessing the requerst object like

$request->get('json');

refers to the post key for the json data

Answer 3

Is the content what you're trying to retrieve, neither params nor headers.

Try:

$request->getContent();

Answer 4

In your case $request->request->get('json') should do.