Question

I have code like the following ( it’s a remote form )

def something
  @user = User.find_by_email(params[:email])
  @success = true
  @error = nil
  if !@user
    @success = false
    @error = "No such user"
  elsif !@user.some_condition
    @success = false
    @error = "User did not pass condition"
  end

  respond_to do |format|
    format.json { render "my_json_view",:status => @success ? 200 : 403 }
  end
end

In the my_json_view I do something like:

json.response do |json|
  if @success
    json.success true
    # data I need here
  else
    json.success false
    json.error @error
  end
end

This way, I can easily hook into the ajax:error event, and easily handle the error case. I’m just wondering how good practice this is. Is it ok to return a different http code, so that jQuery will know there was a failure?

Answer 1

Sure. That’s what error codes are for. But make sure you choose a proper HTTP status code.