Codeigniter, Ajax: Pass html string from view to controller - php

Question

I'm trying to pass a long Html string from a view to a controller using an ajax call, so I can pass it further to another view.
Markup:
<a id="openPDF">Save as PDF</a>
JS:
$('#openPDF').click(function(){
var htmlText = $( "div.modal" ).html(); //grab the html
var dataToSend = JSON.stringify("{strData : '" + htmlText + "' }");
console.log(dataToSend ); // contains the json
$.ajax({
url: "/dashboard/pdf",
type: "POST",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "json",
data: dataToSend
success: function (msg) { alert(msg.d); },
error: function (type) { alert("ERROR!" + type.responseText); }
});
});
Controller:
public function pdf(){
$data['htmlString'] = json_decode($this->input->post('strData'));
$this->load->view('pdf', $data);
}
My ajax call doesn't work because when a click the #openPDF button i get the alert error:
ERROR! NULL
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Are you setting your headers properly before writing the output?
Controller:
public function pdf() {
$data['htmlString'] = json_decode($this->input->post('strData'));
$viewString = $this->load->view('pdf', $data, true); // this returns view as string rather than outputting it
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode(['viewString' => $viewString]);
}
In client-side js, you can pass this success function to $.ajax()
success: function (response) {
if ('undefined' !== typeof response.viewString) {
// append view to concerned element
$('#viewTarget').append(response.viewString);
} else {
console.log('response did not contain viewString');
}
},
I hope this helps.
Also:
Navigate directly to the url (the one you are sending an ajax request for) in your browser and see if you get a valid json output.