Simplify my Jquery xajax like function - php

Question

Basically I was trying to replicate one of the things that xajax gave me with Jquery -> The ability to define what my response modifies server side without setting anything up client side. Works perfectly as is, but each time I want to call a different Jquery function, I have to add it to my if statements.
Each element in the response array contains something to be changed client side.
I should be able to take out almost all of the this.action == 'blah' if statements and replace with some clever javascript, but apparently I'm not clever enough. :)
$.showMessage is simply my replacement for alert, with a timeout and sticky bit.
My client Jquery function:
$.doAjax = function(func,values) {
$.ajax({ data: values, url: '/time/ajax/' + func, type: 'POST', dataType: 'json', timeout: 5000,
error: function(xhr, ajaxOptions,thrownError){ $.showMessage('Error processing request: ' + func,10000);$('#debug').html(xhr.responseText); },
success: function(data){
if(data){
$.each(data, function(){
if ( this.action == 'attr' ) $(this.target).attr(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'removeAttr' ) $(this.target).removeAttr(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'addClass' ) $(this.target).addClass(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'removeClass' ) $(this.target).removeClass(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'html' ) $(this.target).html(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'text' ) $(this.target).text(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'val' ) $(this.target).val(this.content);
if ( this.action == 'eval' ) {
try {
eval(this.content);
}
catch(err) {
$.showMessage(err,5000);
};
};
});
}
}
});
return this;
};
My server side code:
header("Content-type: text/plain");
$response = array();
$response[] = array('action'=>'html','target'=>'#booked_time_group_unbilled','content'=>get_booked_time_group_unbilled());
$response[] = array('action'=>'html','target'=>'#booked_time_my_unbilled','content'=>get_booked_time_my_unbilled());
$response[] = array('action'=>'eval','target'=>'','content'=>"$.showMessage('The selected time has been deleted',5000,true)");
echo json_encode($response);

Answer 1

This should work:
$(this.target)[this.action](this.content);

Answer 2

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking? Stylistically, I would write it like this:
var handlers = {
attr: function() { $(this.target).attr(this.content) },
removeAttr: function() { $(this.target).removeAttr(this.content) },
// etc.
};
$.each(data,function() {
handlers[this.action].call(this);
});
If you just want to execute whatever the server sends back, which not just always send back an eval action?