Send data from php back to Ajax - php

Question

So I submit my form with Ajax like so
$("#submitform").click(function(e){
e.preventDefault();
var form_data = $("#contactfrm").serialize();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/ltlcreation-new/wordpress/wp-content/themes/LTLCreation/includes/form-handler.php",
data: form_data,
error: function(){
alert("failed");
},
success: function(json_data){
console.log(json_data);
alert("success");
},
})
});
In my form-handler.php i catch the from errors
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
//include validation class
include 'validate.class.php';
//assign post data to variables
$name = #($_POST['name']);
$email = #($_POST['email']);
$message = #($_POST['message']);
$phone = #($_POST["phone"]);
//echo $name, $email, $message, $phone;
//start validating our form
$v = new validate();
$v->validateStr($name, "name", 3, 75);
$v->validateEmail($email, "email");
$v->validateStr($message, "message", 5, 1000);
$v->validateStr($phone, "phone", 11, 13);
if(!$v->hasErrors()) {
$to = "lukelangfield001#googlemail.com";
$subject = "Website contact form ";
$mailbody = $message . "\n" . "from " . $name . "\n" . $phone;
$headers = "From: $email";
mail($to, $subject, $mailbody, $headers);
echo "success";
} else {
//set the number of errors message
$message_text = $v->errorNumMessage();
//store the errors list in a variable
$errors = $v->displayErrors();
//get the individual error messages
//$nameErr = $v->getError("name");
//$emailErr = $v->getError("email");
//$messageErr = $v->getError("message");
//$phoneErr = $v->getError("phone");
echo $message_text; echo $errors;
$output = array($message_text);
echo json_encode($output);
}//end error check
}// end isset
These errors usually look like something like this
There were 4 errors sending your message!
Name must be at least 3 characters long.
Please enter an Email Address.
Message must be at least 5 characters long.
Phone must be at least 11 characters long.
["There were 4 errors sending your message!\n"]
I've tried to jSon encode the output and the in the success in ajax pull the json data out, however it just keeps returning an empty string like so
(an empty string)
My question is can you send data back from PHP to Ajax, if so I am doing this completely wrong?

Answer 1

You can output anything other than the json string so echo "success"; would make t. Use your debuggers Network response output tab to see that this is properly encoded.
Also don't use
$name = #($_POST['name']);
use instead
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : '';
If you still have a blank page make sure you have display errors set.
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

Answer 2

I am an idiot I still had this in my PHP file which means the form wasn't firing or returning a response, silly me, glad i finally figured it out though
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
Thanks for the help guys

Answer 3

Here is an example of an Ajax contact form you can use:
Ajax.js
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#btn").click(function(){
var username=$("#name").val();
var email=$("#email").val();
var dis=$("#dis").val();
var process=true;
if(username=="")
process=false;
if(email=="")
process=false;
if(dis=="")
process=false;
if(process){
var dataString="name="+username + "&email="+email+ "&message="+dis;
$("#res").html('<span>Sending...</span><img src="a.gif">');
$.ajax({
url:"b.php",
type:"POST",
data:dataString,
success:function(data){
document.getElementById("name").value='';
document.getElementById("email").value='';
document.getElementById("dis").value='';
$("#res").html(data);
}
});
}else{
alert("fill all fields");
}
});
});
and b.php
<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","root","");
mysql_select_db("ajax") || die("erro");
if(isset($_POST['name'])){
mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($name=$_POST['name']));
mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($email=$_POST['email']));
mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($message=$_POST['message']));
if(!empty($name) && !empty($email) && !empty($message)){
if(mysql_query("INSERT INTO `users` (name,email,message) VALUES('$name','$email','$message') ")){
echo 'The massage has been send';
}else{
echo mysql_error();
}
}
}
?>
enjoy that....

Answer 4

You have the following:
success: function(json_data){
While json_data is simply nothing. It should be
success: function(data){