jQuery AJAX Failing Constently, No Idea Why

Question

I'm working on a project where I have to make a jQuery call to LSD Finder. For clarification, in this case, LSD is not the drug: it's Land Sub Divisions. Canada is split into hundreds if not thousands of pieces of land and they all have a number, say: 14-22-25-02-W5. It's okay that that doesn't mean anything to you, there's an API for that.

But for some stupid reason, I cannot get that API to work. My jQuery AJAX query is simple:

//the variable 'value' comes from an input, and is correct
var url = "https://www.lsdfinder.com/api/v1/SECRETKEY/lsd/"+value;
$.ajax({
 url: url,
dataType: 'json',
success: function(json) {
 alert('anything?');
},
 error: function(e) {
 alert('nothing');
}
});

It doesn't seem to matter if I do dataType json or jsonp, I keep getting 'nothing'. I tried getting a more intelligent error, like an Response Text or something by modifiying the error callback to read the following:

error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
alert(jqXHR.toSource());
alert(textStatus.toSource());
alert(errorThrown.toSource());
}

And my responses were, including the original error function:

nothing
//deep breath, and....
({readyState:0, setRequestHeader:(function (a,b){if(!v){var c=a.toLowerCase();a=u[c]=u[c]||a,t[a]=b}return this}), getAllResponseHeaders:(function (){return v===2?e:null}), getResponseHeader:(function (a){var c;if(v===2){if(!f){f={};while(c=cl.exec(e))f[c[1].toLowerCase()]=c[2]}c=f[a.toLowerCase()]}return c===b?null:c}), overrideMimeType:(function (a){return v||(l.mimeType=a),this}), abort:(function (a){return a=a||w,g&&g.abort(a),y(0,a),this}), state:(function (){return c}), always:(function (){return e.done(arguments).fail(arguments),this}), then:(function (){var a=arguments;return p.Deferred(function(c){p.each(b,function(b,d){var f=d[0],g=a[b];e[d[1]](p.isFunction(g)?function(){var a=g.apply(this,arguments);a&&p.isFunction(a.promise)?a.promise().done(c.resolve).fail(c.reject).progress(c.notify):c[f+"With"](this===e?c:this,[a])}:c[f])}),a=null}).promise()}), promise:(function (a){return typeof a=="object"?p.extend(a,d):d}), pipe:(function (){var a=arguments;return p.Deferred(function(c){p.each(b,function(b,d){var f=d[0],g=a[b];e[d[1]](p.isFunction(g)?function(){var a=g.apply(this,arguments);a&&p.isFunction(a.promise)?a.promise().done(c.resolve).fail(c.reject).progress(c.notify):c[f+"With"](this===e?c:this,[a])}:c[f])}),a=null}).promise()}), done:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), fail:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), progress:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), success:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), error:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), complete:(function (){if(i){var b=i.length;(function d(b){p.each(b,function(b,c){p.isFunction(c)&&(!a.unique||!l.has(c))?i.push(c):c&&c.length&&d(c)})})(arguments),e?g=i.length:c&&(f=b,k(c))}return this}), statusCode:(function (a){if(a){var b;if(v<2)for(b in a)r[b]=[r[b],a[b]];else b=a[x.status],x.always(b)}return this}), responseText:"", status:0, statusText:"error"})
new String("error")
new String("")

So, as you can see, it's failing 100%, and I have no idea why. I thought perhaps that the JSON array I'm getting back is incorrect or broken, so I got it and ran it through a JSONLint and it said it was valid. Just so you can see it, it's:

[
{
 "query": "14-22-25-02-W5",
 "response": {
 "status": "ok",
 "err": [],
 "lat": 51.152259,
 "lng": -114.202199,
 "country": "Canada",
 "province": "AB",
 "city": "Calgary",
 "street": "49 Royal Vista Drive NW",
 "street_prox": 78,
 "address": "49 Royal Vista Drive NW, Calgary, AB",
 "lsd": "14-22-25-2 W5",
 "lsd_border": [
 [
 51.150459,
 -114.199327
 ],
 [
 51.150447,
 -114.205067
 ],
 [
 51.154059,
 -114.205071
 ],
 [
 51.154072,
 -114.199332
 ],
 [
 51.150459,
 -114.199327
 ]
 ],
 "uwi": "",
 "nts": "",
 "nts_border": [],
 "utm": "11S 695661E 15670479N",
 "utm_v": "Zone 11, 695661 meters easting, 15670479 meters northing (Southern Hemisphere)"
 }
}
]

What I want to do, ultimately, is to get this query to work and then get the latitude and longitude and made a point on a dynamic Google Map with it. But first, I need to get the query to work with me. I think the problem may lay in the fact that I'm ajaxing to a https address, but it's 3:30am and I can't think straight, so I hope somebody out there has an idea.

Thank you.

• Johan: Can you give an example of what the "value" can be? Never mind, I just noticed that you didn't want to expose your key. What happens if you paste the complete url in your browser?
• Kenton de Jong: An example of value is "14-22-25-02-W5". I would share the key but I had to pay for it :( If I paste the complete url into my browser I get the above json array, which does validate.
• Johan: What is your serverside language?

Answer 1

jQuery Ajax doesn't support cross-domain queries by default. Try adding crossDomain: true to your request options.

• Rob Schmuecker: +1 The server will also need to provide JSONP support for JSONP to work.
• Kenton de Jong: I ended up doing a query to a local file, and that file did a cURL to the API and got the result. It was an issue with the crossDomain. I never did figure it out, but I got it to work another way. But thanks for your answer :)

Answer 2

It seems that you are accessing something which is not on your server.

You need to use COARSE.