AJAX post to php request issue - php

Question

Hi I'm wanting to post a variable from ajax js file to a php file. here is my attempt so far.
var request = createRequest();
var deletenode = node.id;
window.alert("nodeid=" + deletenode);
var vars = "deletenode="+deletenode;
request.open("POST", "deletenode.php", true);
request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.onreadystatechange = function() {
handleRequest(request);
};
request.send("deletenode=" + encodeURIComponent(deletenode));
here is my php file
<?php
print_r($_POST);
$node = $_POST['deletenode'];
print "node to be deleted: $node";
?>
nothing comes up in my php file, what can be the issue. my ajax request is intact and working right too. thank you and here is my handle request.
function handleRequest(request) {
// we only care for now about when we get to readyState 4
// which means the request completed and we have the response back
if(request.readyState == 4){
//alert("response: " + request.responseText); // check to see what
// we got back just for testing
// now get response's TEXT and put into document (specify where)
// below we have an html element with the id as timeLoc
json= eval ("(" + request.responseText + ")");;
//alert ("json="+json); //tests what was recieved
//clicking the close button
closeButton.onclick = function() {
node.setData('alpha', 0, 'end');
node.eachAdjacency(function(adj) {
adj.setData('alpha', 0, 'end');
var request = createRequest();
var deletenode = node.id;
window.alert("nodeid=" + deletenode);
var vars = "deletenode="+deletenode;
request.open("POST", "deletenode.php", true);
request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.onreadystatechange = function() {
handleRequest(request);
};
request.send("deletenode=" + encodeURIComponent(deletenode));
});
}// end readystate=4
}//end handle request

Answer 1

Remember you have to send the data as key/value pairs - request.send("deletenode=" + encodeURIComponent(deletenode));

Answer 2

I'm not sure if this is a copy/paste error, but if that's your actual code you appear to be missing a few curly braces closes. And have a double;; at the end of your eval line. This is the code tidied up with the extra curly braces, does that work?
function handleRequest(request) {
if(request.readyState == 4){
json= eval ("(" + request.responseText + ")");
closeButton.onclick = function() {
node.setData('alpha', 0, 'end');
node.eachAdjacency(function(adj) {
adj.setData('alpha', 0, 'end');
var request = createRequest();
var deletenode = node.id;
window.alert("nodeid=" + deletenode);
var vars = "deletenode="+deletenode;
request.open("POST", "deletenode.php", true);
request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.onreadystatechange = function() {
handleRequest(request);
};
request.send("deletenode=" + encodeURIComponent(deletenode));
});
}
}
}