ajax jquery , query not getting called - php

Question

Made something simple like a follow system using ajax jquery on my own, thats the function:
function follow(name){
jQuery.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "../include/follow.inc.php",
data: "name",
cache: false,
});
}
and that is the button which calls that function
<button onClick="follow('.$nome.');"></button>
This is how i call the button.
$my_name = $_SESSION['account_name'];
$user = $_POST['name'];
if (isset($_POST['name'])){
$query = "INSERT INTO followed (follower, followed) VALUES ('$my_name', '$user')";
$result = $database->query($query);
}
At the end of the day, it all looks alright until the query is not getting called.
basically what it does is, gets the name (of the user you wish to follow) , it adds the name in follow(name) and proceeds adding it in a query (this is where it fails).

Answer 1

your codes has two problem
1 - you create your variable $name before checking that the name exists or not and in debugging mode you see the notice of php
2 - your codes is open to XSS or SQL Injection Attacks as riggsfolly said in comments
and for your problem: try this and let us known the result
php file:
if(isset($_POST['name'])){
$my_name = $_SESSION['account_name'];
$user = $_POST['name'];
$result = $database->query("INSERT INTO followed (follower, followed) VALUES ('" . $my_name . "', '" . $user . "')");
if($result){
echo('ok');
}else{
echo('error');
}
}
function:
function follow(n){
jQuery.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: '../include/follow.inc.php',
data: { name: n },
cache: false,
success: function(response){
alert(response);
},
error: function(error){
alert('Error in AJAX request !');
}
});
}
dont forget to use a xss cleaning function for getting your data from clients in methods
$user = your_any_xss_clean_function($_POST['name']);