Question

My first question so here it goes.

My goal is to have a simple form post and if everything checks out proceed.

$.post("anotherpage.php", $("#form").serialize(),function(data){

if(data == 'sent'){
alert("True:  " + data);
}    else{
alert("False:  " + data);
}

$("#somediv").text(data);

     });   

here is ‘anotherpage.php’

<?php

echo 'sent'; 

?>

Here is my problem, ‘#somediv’ shows the word ‘sent’ but my function fails every time. Also when it does fail when it alerts it looks like this. “False: s…” It makes me think I have some problem up the stream that is effecting this but I don’t know what.

Answer 1

When trying to be explicit with your HTTP response, it’s easy to accidentally return extra whitespace, especially at the end of your PHP block (carriage returns after the closing angle-bracket being the usual suspects).

Some tips:

1. Make sure there is no whitespace before the start of your php block.
2. Explicitly end the response with exit() on the last code line of your php block:

e.g.

  <?php

  echo 'sent';
  exit(); 

  ?>

There are a few cool functions in PHP regarding output control. You can buffer the output, clear it, store it or flush it. See here for more information.