Question

How would I make an associative array (or some comparable alternative) in jQuery AND send that array via ajax to a php page so that I can use php to handle it?

Something like this…

// jQuery

if($something == true) {
    data[alt] = $(this).attr('alt');
    data[src] = $(this).attr('src');
else if ($something == "something else") {
    data[html] = $(this).html();
}

Then, send this array using the .ajax() function

// jQuery

$.ajax({
    data: /* somehow send my array here */,
    type: 'POST',
    url: myUrl,
    complete: function(){
        // I'll do something cool here
    }
});

Finally, parse this data with php…

// php

<img alt="<?PHP echo $_POST['alt']; ?>" src="<?PHP echo $_POST['src']; ?>" />

I’ve done a little googling on the subject and have read that you cannot make an associative array with javascript so I’m really just looking for some alternative. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can pass the data as an object to $.ajax(), like this:

var data = {};
if ($something == true) {
    data.alt = $(this).attr('alt');
    data.src = $(this).attr('src');
}else if ($something == "something else") {
    data.html = $(this).html();
}

$.ajax({
    data: data,
    type: 'POST',
    url: myUrl,
    complete: function(){
        // I'll do something cool here
    }
});

This will get serialized for the post, internally using $.param(obj) to convert it for the POST, for example:

alt=thisAlt&src=thisSrc

or:

html=myEncodedHtml