Jquery AJAX - JSON or TEXT - php

Question

I'm trying to retrieve the TEXT from the getsku javascript after submitting but not sure how to really do it.
1) How do i retrieve the POST data?
2) How do i retrieve and post it back , if i have multiple varaible to pass back (Datatype:text)
3) When should i use JSON, and when text.
4) If i'm using JSON how do i read it(after javascript) and display it(returned data to javascript).
javascript in main page
function getsku(){
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "funcAjax.php",
data: { 'ddl1': $("#drop_1").val(), 'ddl2': $("#tier_two").val() },
dataType: 'text',
success: function(data) {
$("#sku").val(data);
},
complete: function() {
alert('Complete: Do something.');
},
error: function() {
alert('Error: Do something.');
}
});
}
Button
<input type="button" value="Get SKU" onclick="getsku();" >
Trying to retrieve from another php and return a data to the above php(Having Issues here)
if(isset($_REQUEST['ddl1'])) {
echo "FOUND1";
}else{
echo "FOUND2";
}

Answer 1

Always return JSON from your PHP. Then you can include as many variables as you need in your response, and an error code as well if appropriate - like this:
{"error":"0","result1":"result 1 data","result2":"result 2 data"}
Then your success function can become:
success: function(data) {
if (data.error != 0) {
// An error occurred on server: do something
} else {
$("#sku").val(data.result1);
// do something with data.result2
}
},
Your PHP would become something like this:
if(isset($_REQUEST['ddl1'])) {
echo json_encode(array("error"=>0, "result1"=>"FOUND1"));
}else{
json_encode(array("error"=>1, "result1"=>"NotFOUND"));
}