ajax success function is printing [object Object] instead of plain text. Why?

Question

jQuery code:

function ajaxsubmit(){
$.ajax({
    url: "/update",
    type: "POST",
    dataType: "html"
}).success(function(data) {
      $('#result').html(data);
  });
}

and my Java function:

public static Result ajaxupdate() {
    String done = "very good";
    return ok("very good").as("text/plain");
}

the alert is giving [object Object], instead of plain text "very good". why?

Answer 1

you want to use:

alert(JSON.stringify(data));

so you JavaScript will look like:

function ajaxsubmit(){
$.ajax({
    url: "/update",
    type: "POST",
}).complete(function(data) {
      alert(JSON.stringify(data));
  });
}

Your Java code looks like it is wrapping your string into an object before it sends it back to the client, JSON.stringify() will show you the structure of the object that is being returned and from there you can work out what property of the returned object contains your return variable (Probably something like data.data or data.return)

Answer 2

add dataType: "text" and change complete() with success()

function ajaxsubmit(){
    $.ajax({
        url: "/update",
        type: "POST",
        dataType: "html"
    }).success(function(data) {
          $('#result').html(data);
      });
    }

Answer 3

The jQuery documentation clearly answers your question. From http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/

complete(jqXHR, textStatus)
<...>
two arguments: The jqXHR (in jQuery 1.4.x, XMLHTTPRequest) object and a string

You can find more about jqXHR in documentation. If you want to use the response string, consider opting for .success method. You may have to explicitly provide .contentType