jQuery ajax call "Not Found" error

Question

Hi I have been trying to make a ajax call to a JSP page. Here's the piece of JS function.

<script>
$(function(){

  function myAjaxCall() {
     $.ajax({
        type: "post",
        url: "jsp/common/myJavascriptPage.jsp",
        dataType: "text",
        success: 
            function (result) {
               alert("Got the result: " + result);
            },
            error: function (xhr,status,error) {
               alert("Status: " + status);
               alert("Error: " + error);
               alert("xhr: " + xhr.readyState);
            },
            statusCode: {
               404: function() {
                   alert("page not found");
               }
            }
        });
   }
 });
 </script>

I am constantly getting file not found, even though JSP exists in the URL mentioned. Please note that I am calculating the JSP file location relative to that of webapp directory.

I tried using the normal AJAX calls (without jQuery), but ended up with same error.

Could you please help me understand why is it not able to locate the jsp?

Answer 1

Please note that I am calculating the JSP file location relative to that of webapp directory.

This is where you're going wrong.

AJAX is being executed from the client's web browser, meaning that it's not relative to anything on the server.

If you were to hit that page in a web browser, where you would go?

That's where you want your request URL to be.

Edit: I clearly didn't explain this well enough, so that's have another go!

Let's say I have a file on my server that's stored like so:

my_website/src/webapp/jsp/common/myFile.jsp

If I wanted to access this resource through a publicly accessible URL, it would not be the same as the file path above. It might be something like common/myFile.jsp or maybe even common/myFile.

If this were the case, then I must use the publicly accessible URL for an AJAX request to be able to sent to that URL.

Answer 2

It looks like your URL is incomplete. The most likely cause for the error is that you dont have a fully qualified URL.

Try specifying the full path and see if that helps.