Question

Context: I’m trying to code a javascript function to like a certain post on tumblr, based on this link . I tried using an ajax call instead of changing the source of an iframe, but it doesn’t work. Of course, changing the source of an iframe works.

So, what can be the difference that make this not work?

$baseUrl = 'http://tumblr.com/like/';

function LikePost( $postID, $reblogUrl )
{
    /*
    http://www.tumblr.com/<command>/<oauthId>?id=<postId>
    <command>: like or unlike
    <oauthId>: last eight characters of {ReblogURL}
    <postId>: {PostID}

     Exemple of Url
     http://www.tumblr.com/like/fGKvAJgQ?id=16664837215

    */
    $oauthId = $reblogUrl.substring( $reblogUrl.length - 8, $reblogUrl.length);
    $likeUrl = $baseUrl + $oauthId + '?id=' + $postID;

    $.ajax({
        url: $likeUrl,
        type:'POST'            
        });

}

Answer 1

AJAX requests are bound by same domain policy, with some exceptions that aren’t worth listing since they don’t work unless you control both domains.

In this case, you’re calling a tumblr domain from your website, which you can’t do through AJAX. However, iframes, script elements, and img elements can point to any domain, so if the like url isn’t returning any content to you, you can use any of those means to record the like.

If you didn’t want to use an iframe, the other method you could use would be to make a request to your server via AJAX, then proxy the request to tumblr. Your server can go to any url it wants.

However, the iframe approach is easiest. I suggest going that route since you already got it working. 😉