jquery array become null in php [duplicate] - php

Question

Can someone explain in an easy way how to make jQuery send actual JSON instead of a query string?
$.ajax({
url : url,
dataType : 'json', // I was pretty sure this would do the trick
data : data,
type : 'POST',
complete : callback // etc
});
This will in fact convert your carefully prepared JSON to a query string. One of the annoying things is that any array: [] in your object will be converted to array[]: [], probably because of limitations of the query sting.

Answer 1

You need to use JSON.stringify to first serialize your object to JSON, and then specify the contentType so your server understands it's JSON. This should do the trick:
$.ajax({
url: url,
type: "POST",
data: JSON.stringify(data),
contentType: "application/json",
complete: callback
});
Note that the JSON object is natively available in browsers that support JavaScript 1.7 / ECMAScript 5 or later. If you need legacy support you can use json2.

Answer 2

No, the dataType option is for parsing the received data.
To post JSON, you will need to stringify it yourself via JSON.stringify and set the processData option to false.
$.ajax({
url: url,
type: "POST",
data: JSON.stringify(data),
processData: false,
contentType: "application/json; charset=UTF-8",
complete: callback
});
Note that not all browsers support the JSON object, and although jQuery has .parseJSON, it has no stringifier included; you'll need another polyfill library.

Answer 3

While I know many architectures like ASP.NET MVC have built-in functionality to handle JSON.stringify as the contentType my situation is a little different so maybe this may help someone in the future. I know it would have saved me hours!
Since my http requests are being handled by a CGI API from IBM (AS400 environment) on a different subdomain these requests are cross origin, hence the jsonp. I actually send my ajax via javascript object(s). Here is an example of my ajax POST:
var data = {USER : localProfile,
INSTANCE : "HTHACKNEY",
PAGE : $('select[name="PAGE"]').val(),
TITLE : $("input[name='TITLE']").val(),
HTML : html,
STARTDATE : $("input[name='STARTDATE']").val(),
ENDDATE : $("input[name='ENDDATE']").val(),
ARCHIVE : $("input[name='ARCHIVE']").val(),
ACTIVE : $("input[name='ACTIVE']").val(),
URGENT : $("input[name='URGENT']").val(),
AUTHLST : authStr};
//console.log(data);
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "http://www.domian.com/webservicepgm?callback=?",
data: data,
dataType:'jsonp'
}).
done(function(data){
//handle data.WHATEVER
});

Answer 4

If you are sending this back to asp.net and need the data in request.form[] then you'll need to set the content type to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8"
Original post here
Secondly get rid of the Datatype, if your not expecting a return the POST will wait for about 4 minutes before failing. See here