We Keep Coding

Submitting a JS array via AJAX to Django view returns TypeError

I have an array of objects that needs to be submitted to Django view.
I stringify it and checked result in console log. Up to this point it works. However, when I try to retrieve it in my view I get some errors.
I tried to edit my code similarly to what I've found on the topic, unfortunately nothing helped.
I tried ast.literal_eval instead of json.loads, passing 'items[]' and collecting data via request.POST.getlist as well as solution with request.body and request.is_ajax(). Yet, neither allowed me to retrieve the data.
var items = [];
var formInput = $('#inputbox').val();
items.push({'item': formInput , 'metrics': metrics.toString()});
$('#id_search').click(function( event ) {
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
dataType: 'json',
contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
url: '{% url "list_of_items" %}',
data: {'items': JSON.stringify(items),},
success: function (response) {
console.log(data);
}
});
event.preventDefault();
});
and in views.py:
def list_of_items(request):
data = request.POST.get('items')
data_received = json.loads(data)
#another approach:
response_json = request.body
struct = {}
try:
response_json = response_json.decode('utf-8').replace('\0', '')
struct = json.loads(response_json)
except:
print('bad json: ', response_json)
#(...)
I looks like an empty object is passed.
TypeError at /list_of_items
the JSON object must be str, not 'NoneType'
This view receives another POST request from the JS form within same template (list_of_items.html) and I wonder if it's interfering with my ajax POST.

You are not sending the data correctly. From the docs:
A dictionary-like object containing all given HTTP POST parameters, providing that the request contains form data.
You need to send the data as key:value pair or you need to decode the request.body as
data = request.body.decode('utf-8')
data_received = json.loads(data)

This is the correct way to send ajax request.
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: '{% url "list_of_items" %}',
data: {'items': JSON.stringify(items),},
success: function (response) {
console.log(data);
}
});
I also think that you have bound the submit event and click event incorrectly. Also you are sending ajax request on submit event without preventDefault

add additional data to $form.serialize() ajax post?

I have the following snippet where I am serializing form data and posting it via ajax. I have come across a situation where I need to add additional data. In this case I need to add a comma separated array called 'selectedHours'. Is this possible?
I am creating 'selectedHours' through as shown below where it creates an array of list items with the class 'hour-selected'. There are no form values, inputs, etc used in this aspect.
var selectedHours = [];
$('.hour-selected').each(function(k,v) {
selectedHours.push($(v).text());
});
$.ajax({
type: 'post',
url: '/process/somepage.php',
data: $form.serialize(),
dataType : 'json'
}).done(function (response) {
... and so on...

try this:
$.ajax({
type: 'post',
url: '/process/somepage.php',
data: $form.serialize() + '&hours=' + JSON.stringify(selectedHours),
dataType : 'json'
}).done(function (response) {
... and so on...
data sended are just a URL encoded string. You can append other value with a simple concatenation.

Perhaps a better solution to this might be to use jQuery's serializeArray, as suggested by this answer:
var data = $form.serializeArray();
data.push({name: 'hours', value: selectedHours});
$.post('/process/somepage.php', data).done(doSomething);
This solution might be preferable because it avoids manually constructing a serialized data string, instead opting to passing the data on for jQuery to deal with.

Posting JSON string to PHP page

Okay, I'm having some suicidal issues posting a JSON string to a PHP page. I have literally been through the top ten results on Google and plenty of SO questions related to my problem, but still can't work out what I'm doing wrong.
I have multiple forms on a page and want to collect all form fields, turn them into a JSON string and post them to a PHP page, where a script iterates each item and updates the relevant database tables.
This is my jQuery/JS script to collect the data from all the forms:
var photo_annotations = {};
$('form').each(function(i) {
var id = $(this).attr('id');
photo_annotations[id] = {
caption: $('#'+id+'_caption').val(),
keywords: $('#'+id+'_keywords').val(),
credit: $('#'+id+'_credit').val(),
credit_url: $('#'+id+'_credit_url').val()
};
});
If I console.log my photo_annotations object, this is what is produced, based on a two form example:
({11:{caption:"Caption for first photo.", keywords:"Keyword1,
Keyword2, Keyword3", credit:"Joe Bloggs",
credit_url:"www.a-domain.com"}, 12:{caption:"Caption for Lady Gaga.",
keywords:"Keyword3, Keyword4", credit:"John Doe",
credit_url:"www.another-domain.com"}})
I then need to POST this as a string/JSON to a PHP page, so I've done this:
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
dataType: 'html',
url: 'ajax/save-annotations.php',
data: { data: JSON.stringify(photo_annotations) },
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
success: function(data) {
if (data) {
$('#form_results').html(data);
} else {
alert("No data");
}
}
});
And on my PHP page, I've got this:
<?php
//print_r($_POST['data']);
$decoded = json_decode($_POST['data'],true);
print_r($decoded);
?>
Now, this isn't the only thing I've tried. I've tried to remove all the JSON settings from the AJAX script, in a bid to just send a pure string. I've tried removing contentType and JSON.stringify but still won't go. My PHP page just can't get the data that I'm sending.
Please help push me in the right direction. I've got to the point where I can't remember all the variations I've tried and this little script is now on day 2!
MANAGED TO FIX IT
I rewrote my AJAX function and it worked. I have no idea what was going wrong but decided to test my AJAX function with a very basic data string test=hello world and found that no POST data could be read from the PHP page, even though Firebug says that the page did in fact receive post data matching what I sent. Very strange. Anyway, this is the revised AJAX script:
var the_obj = JSON.stringify(photo_annotations);
var post_data = "annotations="+the_obj;
$.ajax({
url: 'ajax/save-annotations',
type: 'POST',
data: post_data,
dataType: 'html',
success: function(data) {
$('#form_results').html(data);
}
});

Try:
$.ajax({
// ...
data: { data: JSON.stringify(photo_annotations) },
// ...
});
If you just set the "data" property to a string, then jQuery thinks you want to use it as the actual query string, and that clearly won't work when it's a blob of JSON. When you pass jQuery an object, as above, then it'll do the appropriate URL-encoding of the property names and values (your JSON blob) and create the query string for you. You should get a single "data" parameter at the server, and it's value will be the JSON string.

Try urldecode or rawurldecode as follows:
<?php
$decoded = json_decode(urldecode($_POST['data']), true);
print_r($decoded);
?>

I rewrote my AJAX function and it now works. I have no idea what was going wrong but decided to test my AJAX function with a very basic data string test=hello world and found that no POST data could be read from the PHP page, even though Firebug says that the page did in fact receive post data matching what I sent. Very strange. Anyway, this is the revised AJAX script:
var the_obj = JSON.stringify(photo_annotations);
var post_data = "annotations="+the_obj;
$.ajax({
url: 'ajax/save-annotations',
type: 'POST',
data: post_data,
dataType: 'html',
success: function(data) {
$('#form_results').html(data);
}
});
The only thing I can think of is that the order of AJAX settings needed to be in a particular order. This is my old AJAX script which does not send POST data successfully - well it does send, but cannot be read!!
var the_obj = JSON.stringify(photo_annotations);
var data_str = "annotations="+the_obj;
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
dataType: 'html',
data: data_str,
url: 'ajax/save-annotations.php',
success: function(data) {
$('#form_results').html(data);
}
});

in your ajax call try resetting the dataType to json
dataType: "json",
You wouldn't have to use the JSON.stringify() either. On your php script you won't have to decode [json_decode()] the data from the $_POST variable. The data will be easy readable by your php script.

Trying to set variable as part of URL in jquery ajax post

So I am trying to do a post using jQuery.ajax instead of an html form. Here is my code:
$.ajax({
type: 'POST', // GET is available if we prefer
url: '/groups/dissolve/$org_ID',
data: data,
success: function(data){
$('#data_box').html(data);
}
});
Here is my problem:
When this was in an html form, the $org_ID that was part of the URL would actually pull the variable and send it as part of the URL. Now that this is in jquery, its just sending $org_ID as text. How can I get this to figure out what the variable, $org_ID is? I tried declaring it in the javascript but I am brand new to jquery/javascript and don't really know what i'm doing.
Thanks!

Are you rendering this in PHP? In that case you need to do:
url: '/groups/dissolve/<?php print $org_ID; ?>'
Otherwise, you need to do something like
var org_id = 'foo';
// or
var org_id = '<?php print $org_id ?>';
$.ajax({
type: 'POST', // GET is available if we prefer
url: '/groups/dissolve/'+org_ID,
data: data,
success: function(data){
$('#data_box').html(data);
}
});
Unlike PHP, you can't interpolate variables in javascript, you have to concatenate them with the string.
If you're trying to POST a variable (org_id) then you should put it in data:
data['org_id'] = org_id;
$.ajax({
type: 'POST', // GET is available if we prefer
url: '/groups/dissolve/',
data: data,
success: function(data){
$('#data_box').html(data);
}
});
While you can concatenate params onto your url to send them in an HTTP request, putting them in a data object not only lets jQuery do more work for you & escape HTML entities etc (and keep your code cleaner), but also allows you to easily debug and play around with ajax() settings.

It's not clear in the question where your data comes from, but you can use something like:
url: '/groups/dissolve/'+orgId,
or:
url: '/groups/dissolve/?orgId='+orgId,

Short answer, concatinate
url: '/groups/dissolve/' + $org_ID

jQuery.post is not sending data to the specified URL

I have a mobile application and I have a lot of data that I am putting in to a JSON object to store in localStorage. I need to get this data to PHP to process it. I have chosen to use jQuery.ajax to send the data as a JSON object to PHP. However, when I run the function, it gives a success message, but does not go to the url specified. I have a lot of PHP experience but this is my first JS intensive project.
Here is my JS code:
function sendToPHP() {
jQuery.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "email.php",
data: { "json" : ATRdataJSON},
success: function(data){
console.log("Data Sent!");
},
});
};
ATRdataJSON is a JSON object that has several JSON objects nested inside.

The URL may not be pointing where you think it's pointing. Try:
function sendToPHP() {
jQuery.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/email.php",
data: { "json" : ATRdataJSON},
success: function(data){
console.log("Data Sent!");
},
});
};

i'm afraid you cannot send the json object without stringifying it, it may be sent but as a string [object] try to check it first then you may make sure of the url is absolute to make sure it goes to the right controller.