Can I evaluate the response type of an $.ajax() call in success callback?

Question

I am using jQuery to make an AJAX request to a remote endpoint. That endpoint will return a JSON object if there is a failure and that object will describe the failure. If the

Answer 1

Have you application generate correct Content-Type headers (application/json, text/xml, etc) and handle those in your success callback. Maybe something like this will work?

xhr = $.ajax(
    {
        //SNIP
        success: function(data) {
                var ct = xhr.getResponseHeader('Content-Type');
                if (ct == 'application/json') {
                    //deserialize as JSON and continue
                } else if (ct == 'text/xml') {
                    //deserialize as XML and continue
                }
            },
         //SNIP
);

Untested, but it's worth a shot.