Call a url from javascript

Question

Is there a way to call a url and get a response using javascript? I need the equivalent of ASP.NET:

WebRequest req = HttpWebRequest.Create(\"http://someu         


        

Answer 1

Yes, what you are asking for is called AJAX or XMLHttpRequest. You can either use a library like jQuery to simplify making the call (due to cross-browser compatibility issues), or write your own handler.

In jQuery:

$.GET('url.asp', {data: 'here'}, function(data){ /* what to do with the data returned */ })

In plain vanilla javaScript (from w3c):

var xmlhttp;
function loadXMLDoc(url)
{
    xmlhttp=null;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for all new browsers
      xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else if (window.ActiveXObject)
  {// code for IE5 and IE6
      xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
if (xmlhttp!=null)
  {
      xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=state_Change;
      xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
      xmlhttp.send(null);
  }
else
  {
      alert("Your browser does not support XMLHTTP.");
  }
}

function state_Change()
{
    if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
      {// 4 = "loaded"
          if (xmlhttp.status==200)
            {// 200 = OK
             //xmlhttp.data and shtuff
            // ...our code here...
        }
  else
        {
            alert("Problem retrieving data");
        }
  }
}