How do I get data from my AJAX Post to my Django View?

Question

This is what My ajax call looks like

$.ajax({
   url:"{% url 'handsontable' %}",     
   data: {'getdata': JSON.stringify(hot.getData())}, 
   dataType: 'json',
   type: 'POST',                                                                                                                                                                                                

   success: function (res, status) {
        alert(res);
        alert(status);
   },
   error: function (res) {
     alert(res.status);                                                                                                                          
   }
});

This is what my django view looks like.

if request.method == 'POST':
    request_getdata = request.POST.get('getdata', 'None') 
    return HttpResponse(request_getdata)  

The alerts in ajax return the data and "success". But my HttpResponse returns "None".

Any idea why it is not passing the data through? Thanks!

Answer 1

First off you are trying to POST to a html file

url:"/utility_tool/decisions/solution_options/handsontable.html",

Instead, it should be a url to a view.

Second, the ajax post request should have the csrftoken in it's header and you can set it up like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
// using jQuery get csrftoken from your HTML
    var csrftoken = jQuery("[name=csrfmiddlewaretoken]").val();

    function csrfSafeMethod(method) {
        // these HTTP methods do not require CSRF protection
        return (/^(GET|HEAD|OPTIONS|TRACE)$/.test(method));
    }

    $.ajaxSetup({
        beforeSend: function (xhr, settings) {
            // if not safe, set csrftoken
            if (!csrfSafeMethod(settings.type) && !this.crossDomain) {
                xhr.setRequestHeader("X-CSRFToken", csrftoken);
            }
        }
    });

    $.ajax({
        url: "{% url 'name of the view from urls.py' %}",
        data: {
            // here getdata should be a string so that
            // in your views.py you can fetch the value using get('getdata')
            'getdata': JSON.stringify(hot.getData())
        },
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function (res, status) {
            alert(res);
            alert(status);
        },
        error: function (res) {
            alert(res.status);                                                                                                                          
        }
    });
</script>

And in your django view:

# views.py
from django.http import JsonResponse
def someView(request):

    if request.method == 'POST':
        # no need to do this
        # request_csrf_token = request.POST.get('csrfmiddlewaretoken', '')
        request_getdata = request.POST.get('getdata', None) 
        # make sure that you serialise "request_getdata" 
        return JsonResponse(request_getdata) 

And in your urls:

# urls.py

urlpatterns = [
    # other urls
    path('some/view/', views.someView, name='name of the view in urls.py'),
]