Sending JSON data to PHP with jQuery

Question

I'm trying to write a jQuery function to send a query string to a PHP script, but I can't seem to get the text to get to the server in the correct format. I want to send this query string (with the appropriate URL encoding):

data={"name":"Chris"}

where 'data' is always a JSON string. Using jQuery's .ajax function I tried setting my data variable to

data: { 'data': {"name":"chris"} },

but PHP ends up getting:

data[name]=chris

What's the proper way to send the data back to the server so that the JSON string is properly reserved, without having to hand-craft the string?

• Harmen: It's not very clear what you want to do
• Elliott: Have you set the datatype as 'json' ? dataType: 'json'
• dragonmantank: dataType is for the data coming from the server. I'm trying to send JSON data to the server.

Answer 1

First, you'll need to use json2.js because jQuery does not include the capability to output JSON, only to parse it, and the method we will be using is not supported in IE 6/7. Convert your JavaScript object to JSON:

var encoded = JSON.stringify(data);

Then you need to include that JSON-formatted string as request data:

$.getJSON(url, {data: encoded}, function() { ... });

Edit: An older version of this post referred to the jquery-json plugin, but it's obvious that that plug-in was written when jQuery 1.3.x was current.

Answer 2

All you have to do is put quotes around the string

data: { 'data': '{"name":"chris"}' }

Answer 3

Although, unclear from your question, if you are trying to know how to handle JSON strings properly in PHP, the best way would be to use the functions json_encode and json_decode.

Answer 4

This is wrong:

data: { 'data': {"name":"chris"} },

You get a indexed array with key of name and value of chris.

this is right:

{ name : "chris" } 

If you want in php:

 name = "chris"; 

Then you must send

 { name : "chris" } 

Depending on if you GET you can get:

$name = $_GET["name"]; 
echo $name; // chris