jQuery - ajax url not found

Question

Ok, I'm sure this is really easy and I'm being stupid, but just can't seem to get the bottom of it.

I am trying to make a simple AJAX call to some code in "helpers.php" from my js file called "custom.js". However, I keep getting a 404 error as I don't appear to be traversing the folders correctly, although I'm convinced I am...

The folder structure I have is as follows:

html
    index.php
    js/
        custom.js
includes
    helpers.php

And the code I'm using in JS:

$(document).on('ready', function() {
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        dataType: "json",
        url: "../../includes/helpers.php",
        data: { func: "results", days: "7"}, 
        success: function(rows) {
            console.log(rows);
        }
    });
});

but in the console I get:

The requested URL /includes/helpers.php was not found on this server.

Where am I going wrong, any pointers appreciated...

Answer 1

You appear to have two problems:

JavaScript is executed in the context of the document. One of the effects of this is that, unlike CSS, all URLs are relative to the document not the .js file. You have one ../ too many.

You are trying to access a private PHP file

html is, presumably, the DocumentRoot of your site. Files outside it do not get URLs (if they did, then any file on your hard disk would be visible to the WWW).

Your directory structure suggests that your code organisation is such that you should be creating /html/ajax/something.php which includes helpers.php and calls functions in it.