Question

If I have a variable that needs to be posted to a PHP script without refreshing the page.
Is this possible? And if so, how?

My attempt using jQuery:

$.ajax({
   url: "myphpfile.php",
   type: "post",
     data: json/array/whatever,

     success: function(){ // trigger when request was successfull
       window.location.href = 'somewhere'
     }
   })

How would I receive an array passed in my php script?

Answer 1

Use GM_xmlhttpRequest() to allow for cross-domain posts (which it will be in most scenarios).

Greasemonkey Script:

// ==UserScript==
// @name     _Sending arbitrary data, demo
// @include  http://YOUR_SERVER.COM/YOUR_PATH/*
// @grant    GM_xmlhttpRequest
// ==/UserScript==

var someArray       = [1, 2, 3];
var serializedData  = JSON.stringify (someArray);

GM_xmlhttpRequest ( {
    method:     "POST",
    url:        "http://SERVER.COM/PATH/ShowJSON_PostedData.php",
    data:       serializedData,
    headers:    {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
    onload:     function (response) {
                    console.log (response.responseText);
                }
} );

ShowJSON_PostedData.php:

<?php
    echo '<title>JSON data</title>';

    echo '<h2>JSON post data:</h2><pre>';

    $jsonData   = json_decode($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA);
    print_r ($jsonData);

    echo '</pre>';
?>

The console. will show:

<title>JSON data</title><h2>JSON post data:</h2><pre>Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 3
)
</pre>