jQuery AJAX form using mail() PHP script sends email, but POST data from HTML form is undefined

Question

Thanks for taking the time to look, guys. I'm creating a pretty basic AJAX contact form using jQuery. The email sends, but upon opening the email there is no POST data, so I just get the strings I defined in the PHP script. On my phone's email client, the content of the email literally says 'undefined'. I've tried adding different types of header data to no avail, and a number of variations on the PHP mail() function.

I am more than willing to adopt an easier solution for a simple AJAX form, so thanks in advance for any new approaches.

Here is the form:

   <section id="left">
      <label for="form_name">Name</label>
      <input name="form_name" id="form_name" type="text" >

      <label for="form_email">Email</label>
      <input name="form_email" id="form_email" type="email" >
   </section>

   <section id="right">
      <label for="form_msg">Message</label>
      <textarea name="form_msg" id="form_msg"></textarea>
      <input id="submit" class="button" name="submit" type="submit" value="Send">
   </section>

</form>

The jQuery AJAX:

$(function() {
    $("#contact .button").click(function() {
        var name = $("#form_name").val();
        var email = $("#form_email").val();
        var text = $("#msg_text").val();
        var dataString = 'name='+ name + '&email=' + email + '&text=' + text;

        $.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: "email.php",
            data: dataString,
            success: function(){
            $('.success').fadeIn(1000);
            }
        });

        return false;
    });
});

The PHP script (external file 'email.php'):

<?php
if($_POST){
    $name = $_POST['form_name'];
    $email = $_POST['form_email'];
    $message = $_POST['form_msg'];

//send email
    mail("[email protected]", "This is an email from:" .$email, $message);
}
?>

Answer 1

There is no need to make a query string. Just put your values in an object and jQuery will take care of the rest for you.

var data = {
    name: $("#form_name").val(),
    email: $("#form_email").val(),
    message: $("#msg_text").val()
};
$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "email.php",
    data: data,
    success: function(){
        $('.success').fadeIn(1000);
    }
});