What to do with php after jquery .serialize()

Question

Ok somehow im having the hardest time figuring this out so i want to do an call ajax with a form and im using jquery to serialize it with .serialize(). The data being sent t

Answer 1

If you're submitting the form data with jQuery's Ajax functionality, there should not be a problem with using .serialize(). The server should see and urldecode automatically the POST content.

As a demonstration, see this code:

HTML

   

      

        Category Name: 
        
      
      

         

           Field #1:

           
         
         

           Field #2:

           
         
      
   

POST Result

jQuery

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('pre').html($('#category-dynamic').serialize());

    $.post("http://jfcoder.com/test/processor.php", $('#category-dynamic').serialize(), function(data){
         $('pre').html($('pre').html()+"\n\n"+data);
    });
});

EDIT

And the processor.php file contents:

EDIT 2

I think your error is that you're sending the content in such a way as to make the form data be a text string instead of url-encoded content.

For instance, you could do this:

var formSubmit = $(this).serialize() + "&formSubmit=true";
$.post('ajax.php', formSubmit);

And you'd have the same effect, and the server would be able to expand your POST variables without incident.

EDIT 3

See this example:

Where the code is:

$(document).ready(function(){
    var serial = $('#category-dynamic').serialize() + "&formSubmit=true";
    $('pre').html(serial);
    $.post("http://jfcoder.com/test/processor.php", serial, function(data){
         $('pre').html($('pre').html()+"\n\n"+data);
    });
});

Note the addition of the "&formSubmit=true" to the serial data. This outputs from the PHP page:

POST Result

category-name=&fields%5B%5D=&fields%5B%5D=&formSubmit=true

Array
(
    [category-name] => 
    [fields] => Array
        (
            [0] => 
            [1] => 
        )

    [formSubmit] => true
)

EDIT 4

This uses the method you describe. See the difference?

$(document).ready(function(){
    var serial = $('#category-dynamic').serialize();
    $('pre').html(serial);
    $.post("http://jfcoder.com/test/processor.php", {"formSubmit":"true","serial":serial}, function(data){
         $('pre').html($('pre').html()+"\n\n"+data);
    });
});

OUTPUT

POST Result

category-name=&fields%5B%5D=&fields%5B%5D=

Array
(
    [formSubmit] => true
    [serial] => category-name=&fields%5B%5D=&fields%5B%5D=
)