Return String from Cross-domain AJAX Request - javascript

I'm looking for a way to return a single JSON/JSONP string from a cross-domain "AJAX" request. Rather than request the string and have JQuery return it as a generic object automatically, I want to get a hold of the string BEFORE that conversion happens. The goal here is to parse it myself so I can turn it straight into new objects of a certain type (e.g. a Person object).
So, just to make this clear, I don't want any string-to-generic-object conversion going on behind the scenes and this must work using a different domain.
Here's a non-working example of what I would like to do:
$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: 'http://www.someOtherDomain.com/GetPerson',
dataType: 'text',
success: parseToPerson
});
function parseToPerson( textToParse ) {
// I think I can do this part, I just want to get it working up to this point
}
I'm perfectly happy if JQuery isn't involved in the solution, as long as it works. I would prefer to use JQuery, though. From what I've read, the javascript techniques used to get JSONP data (dynamically creating a script element) would probably work, but I can't seem to get that to work for me. I control the domain that I am requesting data from and I can get the data if I change the dataType in the AJAX call to 'JSONP', so I know that is working.

If your data is being retrieved from another domain, you will need to use JSONP (there are other options, but JSONP is by far the easiest if you control the service). The jQuery call will look like this:
$.ajax({
// type: 'GET', --> this is the default, you don't need this line
url: 'http://www.someOtherDomain.com/GetPerson',
dataType: 'jsonp',
success: parseToPerson
});
The actual request that goes to your service will be http://www.someOtherDomain.com/GetPerson?callback=arbitrary_function_name. On the service side, you will need to return data like this:
arbitrary_function_name("the string (or JSON data) that I want to return");
So you'll need to inspect the querystring parameters, get the value of the callback parameter, and echo it out as if you're calling a Javascript function with that name (which you are), passing in the value you want to provide through the service. Your success function will then get called with the data your service provided.
If you're deserializing the returned data into a Javascript object, you might be better off returning JSON data than a string, so the data your service returns might look like this:
arbitrary_function_name({
"name":"Bob Person",
"age":27,
"etc":"More data"
});
That way you don't have to worry about parsing the string - it'll already be in a Javascript object that's easy to use to initialize your object.

Not sure how this will work in conjuction with jsonp, but maybe converters is what you're looking for?
$.ajax(url, {
dataType: "person",
converters: {
"text person": function(textValue) {
return parseToPerson(textValue);
}
}
});

Related

Get jQuery $.ajax to send data in body for GET [duplicate]

The service API I am consuming has a given GET method that requires the data be sent in the body of the request.
The data required in the body is a list of id's separated by hypen and could potentially be very large and thus it must be sent in the body otherwise it will likely foobar somewhere in the browsers/proxies/webservers etc chain. Note I don't have control over the service or API so please don't make suggestions to change it.
I am using the following jQuery code however observing the request/response in fiddler I can see that the "data" I am sending is ALWAYS converted and appended to the query string despite me setting the "processData" option to false...
$.ajax({
url: "htttp://api.com/entity/list($body)",
type: "GET",
data: "id1-id2-id3",
contentType: "text/plain",
dataType: "json",
processData: false, // avoid the data being parsed to query string params
success: onSuccess,
error: onError
});
Anyone know how I can force the "data" value to be sent in the body of the request?
In general, that's not how systems use GET requests. So, it will be hard to get your libraries to play along. In fact, the spec says that "If the request method is a case-sensitive match for GET or HEAD act as if data is null." So, I think you are out of luck unless the browser you are using doesn't respect that part of the spec.
You can probably setup an endpoint on your own server for a POST ajax request, then redirect that in your server code to a GET request with a body.
If you aren't absolutely tied to GET requests with the body being the data, you have two options.
POST with data: This is probably what you want. If you are passing data along, that probably means you are modifying some model or performing some action on the server. These types of actions are typically done with POST requests.
GET with query string data: You can convert your data to query string parameters and pass them along to the server that way.
url: 'somesite.com/models/thing?ids=1,2,3'
we all know generally that for sending the data according to the http standards we generally use POST request.
But if you really want to use Get for sending the data in your scenario
I would suggest you to use the query-string or query-parameters.
1.GET use of Query string as.
{{url}}admin/recordings/some_id
here the some_id is mendatory parameter to send and can be used and req.params.some_id at server side.
2.GET use of query string as{{url}}admin/recordings?durationExact=34&isFavourite=true
here the durationExact ,isFavourite is optional strings to send and can be used and req.query.durationExact and req.query.isFavourite at server side.
3.GET Sending arrays
{{url}}admin/recordings/sessions/?os["Windows","Linux","Macintosh"]
and you can access those array values at server side like this
let osValues = JSON.parse(req.query.os);
if(osValues.length > 0)
{
for (let i=0; i<osValues.length; i++)
{
console.log(osValues[i])
//do whatever you want to do here
}
}
Just in case somebody ist still coming along this question:
There is a body query object in any request. You do not need to parse it yourself.
E.g. if you want to send an accessToken from a client with GET, you could do it like this:
const request = require('superagent');
request.get(`http://localhost:3000/download?accessToken=${accessToken}`).end((err, res) => {
if (err) throw new Error(err);
console.log(res);
});
The server request object then looks like {request: { ... query: { accessToken: abcfed } ... } }
You know, I have a not so standard way around this. I typically use nextjs. I like to make things restful if at all possible. If I need to make a get request I instead use post and in the body I add a submethod parameter which is GET. At which point my server side handles it. I know it's still a post method technically but this makes the intention clear and I don't need to add any query parameters. Then the get method handles a get request using the data provided in the post method. Hopefully this helps. It's a bit of a side step around proper protocol but it does mean there's no crazy work around and the code on the server side can handle it without any problems. The first thing present in the server side is if(subMethod === "GET"){|DO WHATEVER YOU NEED|}

Having problems with jQuery, ajax and jsonp

I am using jsonp and ajax to query a web-service written in java on another server. I am using the following jquery command:
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: wsUrl,
data: {},
dataType: "jsonp",
complete: sites_return,
crossDomain: true,
jsonpCallback: "sites_return"
});
function jsonp_callback(data) {
console.log(data);
}
function sites_return(data) {
console.log(data);
}
So my problem is that after the query finishes a function called jsonp_callback is called. Where I can clearly see the json formatted string:
{"listEntries":["ELEM1", "ELEM2", "ELEM3", etc...]}
But after the function sites_return is called when the complete event fires, I get the the following:
Object { readyState=4, status=200, statusText="parsererror"}
Also for reference the jsonp_callback function is called before the sites_return function. Also if i take the jsonp_callback function out of the code, I get a complaint it firebug that the function is not implemented.
My question three fold:
1) What am i doing wrong on the jquery side?
2) Why does the json get parsed correctly in jsonp_callback but not sites_return?
3) What can i do to fix these issues?
EDIT
Some new development. Per the comments here is some additional information.
The following is what comes out of the http response
jsonp_callback({"listEntries":["ELEM1", "ELEM2", "ELEM3"]})
I assume this is the reason jsonp_callback is being called. I guess my question now becomes, is there any way to control this (assuming i don't have access to the back end web-service).
Hope this helps~
var url = "http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA&sensor=false";
var address = "1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway";
var apiKey = "+Mountain+View,+CA";
$.getJSON("http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q="+ address+"&key="+apiKey+"&sensor=false&output=json&callback=?",
function(data, textStatus){
console.log(data);
});
I believe that the first argument to the sites_return function would be the jqXHR Object. Instead of complete try using success.
But still this may not work as it seems that there is a parsing error (mentioned in the return value of sites_return function called from oncomplete). Therefore, you would first need to check your json string.
To Validate JSON, you can use http://jsonlint.com/
I think that the problem is that your server is not behaving the way jQuery expects it to. The JSONP "protocol" is not very stable, but generally what's supposed to happen is that the site should look for the "callback" parameter and use that as the function name when it builds the JSONP response. It looks as if your server always uses the function name "jsonp_callback".
It might work to tell jQuery that your callback is "jsonp_callback" directly:
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: wsUrl,
data: {},
dataType: "jsonp",
complete: sites_return,
crossDomain: true,
jsonpCallback: "jsonp_callback"
});
Not 100% sure however.
If you don't have the ability to change the JSONP function wrapper that the remote server returns, jQuery's $.ajax() may be overkill here. Ultimately, all you're doing is injecting a script reference to wsUrl, which makes a call to jsonp_callback with a JavaScript object literal as its input parameter.
You could just as easily do something like this and avoid the confusion around the callback naming/syntax:
$.getScript(wsUrl);
function jsonp_callback(response) {
// Access the array here via response.listEntries
}

Is there a name for a pre-loaded AJAX object?

Is there a name for a pre-loaded AJAX object stored in memory?
If I wanted to use this code:
function GetXML() {
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "questions.xml",
dataType: "xml",
success: function(xml) {
} //close success
});//close AJAX
}; //close function GetXML
to load some XML, how would I store this data on an object? Would I have to create a new variable on the object to store this XML? That's what I've found. If so, what would the type would the variable be? (e.g. String, Int, something of that nature)
Would it be 'Object XML' or something of that sort?
Thanks, Elliot Bonneville
Since you are setting dataType: 'xml' in the AJAX request, jQuery will parse the response into an XMLDocument object.
Note that there are certain circumstances where you will need to do this manually. (Related to an IE bug, of course)
You'll have to use a JavaScript XML parser to convert it to an object. There are a lot of pre-made ones, but if you want it for something simple check: http://www.w3schools.com/Xml/xml_parser.asp
Since you're using jQuery already, parse the data like you parse the elements of an html document with regular $() calls on elements in the xml.
you could use jQuery('example

jQuery + JSONP + Yahoo Query Language

I want to get live currency rates from an external source, so I found this great webservice:
Currency Convertor
This service is working like a charm, the only downside is that it does not provide JSONP results, only XML. Therefore we have a cross browser problem while trying to consume this webservice using jQuery $.ajax().
So I found Yahoo Query Language which returns results as JSONP and also mangae to consume other webservices and return me the results. This is also working, here is an example URL:
http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20*%20from%20xml%20where%20url%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webservicex.net%2FCurrencyConvertor.asmx%2FConversionRate%3FFromCurrency%3DNOK%26ToCurrency%3DEUR'&format=json&diagnostics=true&callback=cbfunc
This URL return JSONP result and is working like a charm, but the problem appears when I use this in my code:
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: urlToWebservice,
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "jsonp",
success: function(data) {
$("#status").html("OK: " + data.text);
},
error: function(xhr, textStatus, errorThrown) {
$("#status").html("Unavailable: " + textStatus);
}
});
When I try to run this code nothing happens, and I can see this error message in my Firebug javascript debugger:
cbfunc is not defined
cbfunc is the name of the container which surrounds the JSON response, but why does it say not defined?
EDIT:
This is my new code, but I still get the cbfunc is not defined
$.ajax({
url: "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?q=select%20*%20from%20xml%20where%20url%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webservicex.net%2FCurrencyConvertor.asmx%2FConversionRate%3FFromCurrency%3DNOK%26ToCurrency%3DEUR'&format=json&callback=cbfunc",
dataType: 'jsonp',
jsonp: 'callback',
jsonpCallback: 'cbfunc'
});
function cbfunc(data) {
alert("OK");
}
And the "OK" message is never fired...
If available, use the jsonpCallback parameter in the call to $.ajax like:
jsonpCallback: "cbfunc",
Its description, from the jQuery API docs reads:
Specify the callback function name for a jsonp request. This value will be used instead of the random name automatically generated by jQuery.
The docs later go on to say:
It is preferable to let jQuery generate a unique name as it'll make it easier to manage the requests and provide callbacks and error handling. You may want to specify the callback when you want to enable better browser caching of GET requests.
However it is not advised to make use of this "preferable" behaviour when making use of YQL. Precisely why that approach is not ideal might make this answer far too verbose, so here is a link (from the YQL blog) detailing the problems with jQuery's preferred approach, making use of jsonpCallback and so on: Avoiding rate limits and getting banned in YQL and Pipes: Caching is your friend
You should let jQuery handle the callback by changing urlToWebservice to end in callback=?
The reason it's not working is because by specifying callback=cbfunc in the querystring generates a URL of the type:
http://query.yahooapis.com/...&callback=cbfunc&callback=jsonp1277417828303
Stripped out all uninteresting parts, but the URL contains two callback parameters. One of them is managed by jQuery, and the other one not. YQL only looks at the first callback parameter and returns a response wrapped around that.
cbfunc({"query":{...}});
However, there is no function named cbfunc in your script, so that's why you are getting the undefined error. jQuery created an implicit function named jsonp1277417828303 in the above example, and the response from YQL should instead have been:
jsonp1277417828303({"query":{...}});
for jQuery to act upon it, and return the response to your success callback which it never got to do.
So, as #SLaks suggested, remove the &callback=cbfuncfrom your URL, or replace it with &callback=? to let jQuery handle things.
See a working example.
You definitely should give jQuery-JSONP a try: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-jsonp/
Simplifies everything :)

Difference between $("#id").load and $.ajax?

Does anyone know what is the difference between $("#id").load and $.ajax?
Let me clarify things for you a little bit :
$.ajax() is the basic and low-level ajax function jQuery provides which means you can do what ever you want to like you can work with XmlHttpRequest object. But once upon a time jQuery Developers thought that actually besides $.ajax(), they could provide more specific methods to developers so they wouldn't need to pass more parameters to make $.ajax() method work the way they want. For example they said instead of passing json as a parameter to $.ajax() to indicate return data type, they provided $.getJSON() so we would all know that the return type we expected was json, or instead of indicating send method as post or get, you could use $.post() or $.get() respectively.
So load() is the same thing, it can help you inject html data into your html. with load() method you know that an html portion is being expected.
Isn't that cool ?
I think I've been fallen in love.
For more information, you can visit jquery.com, they are even providing their new library and api tutorial page.
Edit :
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "some.php",
data: "name=John&location=Boston",
success: function(msg){
alert( "Data Saved: " + msg );
}
});
is the same as below :
$.post("some.php", { name: "John", time: "2pm" },
function(data){
alert("Data Loaded: " + data);
});
Now as you can see it is the simplified version of $.ajax(), to make post call, you need to pass some information of send method type which is post as shown at the first example but instead of doing this you can use $.post() because you know what you are doing is post so this version is more simplified and easy to work on.
But don't forget something. Except for load(), all other ajax methods return XHR (XmlHttpRequest instance) so you can treat them as if you were working with XmlHttpRequest, actually you are working with it tho :) and but load() returns jQuery which means :
$("#objectID").load("test.php", { 'choices[]': ["Jon", "Susan"] } );
in the example above, you can easly inject the return html into #objectID element. Isn't it cool ? If it wasn't returning jQuery, you should have been working with callback function where you probably get the result out of like data object and inject it manually into the html element you want. So it would be hassle but with $.load() method, it is really simplified in jQuery.
$("#feeds").load("feeds.php", {limit: 25}, function(){
alert("The last 25 entries in the feed have been loaded");
});
You can even post parameters, so according to those parameters you can do some work at server-side and send html portion back to the client and your cute jQuery code takes it and inject it into #feeds html element in the example right above.
load() initiates an Ajax request to retrieve HTML that, when returned, is set to the given selector.
All the jQuery Ajax functions are simply wrappers for $.ajax() so:
$("#id").load(...);
is probably equivalent to:
$.ajax({
url: "...",
dataType: "html",
success: function(data) {
$("#id").html(data);
}
});
A more concise summary and the most important difference is that $.ajax allows you to set content-type and datatype.
These two are important for making JSON requests, or XML requests. ASP.NET is more fussy with a missing content-type field (atleast when you use [WebMethod]) and will simply return the HTML of the page instead of JSON.
$.load() is intended to simply return straight HTML. $.ajax also gives you
caching
error handling
filtering of data
password
plus others.
From the documentation ...
$(selector).load(..)
Load HTML from a remote file and inject it into the DOM.
$.ajax(...)
Load a remote page using an HTTP request. This is jQuery's low-level AJAX implementation.
load is specifically for fetching (via GET unless parameters are provided, then POST is used) an HTML page and directly inserting it into the selected nodes (those selected by the $(selector) portion of $(selector).load(...).
$.ajax(...) is a more general method that allows you to make GET and POST requests, and does nothing specific with the response.
I encourage you to read the documentation.
Here's the source code for the load function: http://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/master/src/ajax.js#L15
As you can see, it's a $ajax with some options handling. In other words, a convenience method.
The above answer may not be valid anymore in light of the use of deferred and promise objects. I believe that with .ajax you can use .when but you cannot do so with .load. In short, I believe that .ajax is more powerful than .load. For example:
some_promise = $.ajax({....});
.when(some_promise).done(function(){.... });
You get more granular control over the html loading. There is also .fail and .always for failure and "no matter what" cases. You don't get this in load. Hope I am correct on this.

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