Question

Why does jQuery add numerical indices to arrays in GET requests with .ajax()? Is there a way to remove those?

For example, in jQuery, let’s say I send the following in as data to .ajax():

var source = {
    "type": "database",
    "criteria": {
      "match": "all", 
      "rules": [{"equals": 1, "val": "test"}, {"equals": 1, "val": "two"}]
    }

I want the rules var to be serialized as an array. This gets serialized as the following url that .ajax() uses:

api?source[type]=database&[criteria][rules][0][equals]=1&source[criteria][rules][0][val]=test&source[criteria][rules][1][equals]=1&source[criteria][rules][1][val]=two

Because the arrays are indexed (rules[0] and rules[1]), it gets interpreted on the server as:

"rules"=>{"0"=>{"equals"=>"1", "val"=>"test"}, "1"=>{"equals"=>"1", "val"=>"test"}}

Ack, it’s now an object! What I need is for it to be serialized as such:

api?source[type]=database&[criteria][rules][][equals]=1&source[criteria][rules][][val]=test&source[criteria][rules][][equals]=1&source[criteria][rules][][val]=two

using rules[] (no index). This then gets correctly interpreted as:

"rules"=>[{"equals"=>"1", "val"=>"test"}, {"equals"=>"1", "val"=>"test"}]

An array!

Is there a setting to control this with ajax? I’ve played around with different settings like dataType and traditional with no luck.

I’m assuming using var[] (no index) is correct as I’ve seen it in examples in jQuery documentation:

$.get("test.php", { 'choices[]': ["Jon", "Susan"]} );

Answer 1

I don’t believe you can change the way that jQuery does that. If I were you, I would write a quick function to generate the parameter you want from your array as a string and then tack that parameter on to the ajax request using the data property as seen below:

$.ajax({
   type: "GET",
   url: "some.php",
   data: "name=John&location=Boston",
   success: function(msg){
     alert( "Data Saved: " + msg );
   }
 });