Question

When I send signals back to the client from an Ajax request, I use this form:

<!--a_b-->

so if some how I don’t parse it, and it ends up in the html it won’t break anything because it is a comment.

a and b denote values to convey information while _ is a separator.

I can’t but help wonder how others send “control” signals back from an ajax request.

What is the best way to send control signals from the server to the client using ajax?

Answer 1

I would just use JSON. Your client has to know how to interpret the response anyway, so encoding it in a html comment isn’t really useful. It just means you need extra work to parse later. The if some how I don't parse it just means you have a bug you should fix.