How to response ajax request in Django

Question

I have code like this:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#error').hide();
    $('#submit').click(function(){
        var name = $("#name").val();
        if (name == "") {
            $("#error").show("slow");
            return false;
        }
        var pass = $("#password").val();
        if (pass == "") {
            $("#error").show("slow");
            return false;
        }
        $.ajax({
            url: "/ajax/",
            type: "POST",
            data: name,
            cache:false,
            success: function(resp){
                alert ("resp");
            }
        });
    });
});

and view in Django:

def lat_ajax(request):
    if request.POST and request.is_ajax:
        name = request.POST.get('name')
        return HttpResponse(name)
    else :
        return render_to_response('ajax_test.html',locals())

Where is my mistake? I'm a beginner in Django, please help me.

Answer 1

Put dataType: "json" in the jquery call. The resp will be a javascript object.

$.ajax({
    url: "/ajax/",
    type: "POST",
    data: name,
    cache:false,
    dataType: "json",
    success: function(resp){
        alert ("resp: "+resp.name);
    }
});

In Django, you must return a json-serialized dictionnary containing the data. The content_type must be application/json. In this case, the locals trick is not recommended because it is possible that some local variables can not be serialized in json. This wil raise an exception. Please also note that is_ajax is a function and must be called. In your case it will always be true. I would also test request.method rather than request.POST

import json
def lat_ajax(request):

    if request.method == 'POST' and request.is_ajax():
        name = request.POST.get('name')
        return HttpResponse(json.dumps({'name': name}), content_type="application/json")
    else :
        return render_to_response('ajax_test.html', locals())

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UPDATE : As mentioned by Jurudocs, csrf_token can also be a cause I would ecommend to read : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/csrf/#ajax