AJAX POST return data not appearing - php

Question

I have an AJAX call which runs on a form submit (with prevent default to stop standard submit):
var form = $(this);
$.ajax({
type: form.attr('method'),
url: form.attr('action'),
data: form.serialize()
}).done(function(data) {
$('#processingFile').hide();
$('#downloadFile').show();
$('#shareURL').val(data.url);
$('#downloadFile').attr('href', data.url);
$('#aboutFile').html('<b>File URL:</b> ' + data.url + '<br /><b>File Size:</b> ' + data.size + '<br /><b>Time Stamp:</b> ' + data.timestamp + '<br /><b>Client IP:</b> ' + data.ip);
}).fail(function() {
$('#saveFile').hide();
$('#error').show();
});
The file it submits to is a PHP file which is as follows:
// VARIABLES
$fileURL = $_POST['fileURL'];
$tmpURL = substr(md5(rand()), 0, 7);
$deleteCode = md5($tmpURL);
// COOKIE
setcookie($tmpURL, $deleteCode, time()+86400);
// SAVE FILE
if($fileURL){
file_put_contents("tmp/" . $tmpFile, file_get_contents("http://" . $fileURL));
}
// OUTPUT
$result = array(
'url' => "tmp/" . $tmpFile,
'size' => filesize("tmp/" . $tmpFile) * .0009765625 * .0009765625,
'timestamp' => date('H:i:s d-m-Y'),
'ip' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']
);
echo json_encode($result);
When the script is run everywhere which uses data.x in the jQuery returns undefined. Any idea why that happens and how to fix it?

Answer 1

data is a string containing your returned JSON text; it isn't an object.
To parse the JSON object, you have a couple of options:
Call JSON.parse() yourself.
Pass dataType: "json" to tell jQuery AJAX to parse it for you.
Set Content-Type: application/json in the server's response so that jQuery knows to parse it for you.

Answer 2

Set dataType: 'json' and check! Look this doc and set your datType.