AJAX: Submitting a form without refreshing the page

Question

I have a form similar to the following:

Answer 1

/**
 * it's better to always use the .on(event, context, callback) instead of the .submit(callback) or .click(callback)
 * for explanation why, try googling event delegation.
 */

//$("#myForm").on('submit', callback) catches the submit event of the #myForm element and triggers the callbackfunction
$("#myForm").on('submit', function(event, optionalData){
    /*
     * do ajax logic  -> $.post is a shortcut for the basic $.ajax function which would automatically set the method used to being post
     * $.get(), $.load(), $.post() are all variations of the basic $.ajax function with parameters predefined like 'method' used in the ajax call (get or post)
     * i mostly use the $.ajax function so i'm not to sure extending the $.post example with an addition .error() (as Kristof Claes mentions) function is allowed
     */
    //example using post method
    $.post('mail.php', $("#myForm").serialize(), function(response){
        alert("hey, my ajax call has been complete using the post function and i got the following response:" + response);
    })
    //example using ajax method
    $.ajax({
        url:'mail.php',
        type:'POST',
        data: $("#myForm").serialize(),
        dataType: 'json', //expects response to be json format, if it wouldn't be, error function will get triggered
        success: function(response){
            alert("hey, my ajax call has been complete using the ajax function and i got the following response in json format:" + response);
        },
        error: function(response){
            //as far as i know, this function will only get triggered if there are some request errors (f.e: 404) or if the response is not in the expected format provided by the dataType parameter
            alert("something went wrong");
        }
    })
    //preventing the default behavior when the form is submit by
    return false;
    //or
    event.preventDefault();
})