How to get the values from a $.ajax using php - php

Question

I'm trying to use $.ajax to send some values to a php page which then sends an email,
I can't figure out how to get the values from $.ajax in my php file,
any help would be appreciated,
$(function() {
$('form#email input[type=image]').click(function() {
var name = $('form#email #name').val();
var enq = $('form#email #enq').val();
var dataString = 'name=' + name + '&enq=' + enq;
$.ajax({
type:'POST',
url:'email.php',
data:dataString,
success:function() {
$('form#email').fadeOut();
}
});
$('form#email')[0].reset();
return false;
});
});
php file
if (isset($_POST['submit_x'])) {
$name = $_POST['name'];
$enq = $_POST['enq'];
$name = htmlentities($name);
$enq = htmlentities($enq);
//echo $name,$enq;
$to = 'amirkarimian#hotmail.co.uk';
//$to = 'tutor#inspiretuition.co.uk'
$subject = 'Enquiry';
$message = $enq;
mail($to,$subject,$message);
if(!mail) {
echo 'failed to send mail';
}
}
the email doesn't get sent.
if I dont use $.ajax and submit the form normally the email get sent.
thanks

Answer 1

You're checking for a variable you're not submitting, submit_x, you'll need to remove that outer if check. Also, it's better to let jQuery serialize your strings properly (what if there's a & in there?) like this:
$(function() {
$('#email input[type=image]').click(function() {
$.ajax({
type:'POST',
url:'email.php',
data: { name: $('#name').val(), enq: $('#enq').val() }
success:function() {
$('form#email').fadeOut();
}
});
$('#email')[0].reset();
return false;
});
});
Or if the <form> elements have proper name attributes (they should, for graceful degradation) , you can replace data: { name: $('#name').val(), enq: $('#enq').val() }
with data: $('#email').serialize().

Answer 2

try sending 'submit_x' to php :)

Answer 3

You can use a data map to define your data:
var name = $('form#email #name').val();
var enq = $('form#email #enq').val();
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: 'email.php',
dataType: 'html',
data: {
submit_x : 1,
name : name,
enq : enq
},
success: function(html){
$('form#email').fadeOut();
},
error: function(e, xhr) { alert('__a Error: e: ' + e + ', xhr:' + xhr); }
});