jQuery $.ajax() functionality - Accessing the XMLHttpRequest object

Question

Is it possible to access the XMLHttpRequest object from the success callback of the $.ajax() function? Specifically I need access to XMLHttpRequest.responseBody in IE. Per the documentation the returned jqXHR object does not expose the .responseBody property.

This seems to be a minor oversite that has a huge impact when dealing with binary data. If the .responseBody property or the underlying XMLHttpRequest object is not accessible I'll have to skip jQuery for ajax and code it in, shudder, pure javascript.

Update

I am infact looking for the responceBody variable, not the responceText variable that is readily accessible from within $.ajax()

Answer 1

Provide the xhr settings field to create the XMLHttpRequest, and retain a reference to the object. A quick way to do this is by adding it to the settings object (which is accessible via this in the callbacks).

$.ajax({
    url: "/whatever",
    xhr: function(){
        return this._xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    },
    success: function(){
        console.log("Original XHR:", this._xhr);
    }
});

Answer 2

You can use beforeSend callback too:

$.ajax({
    beforeSend: function(jqXHR, settings){
        // Here you are the XHR object
        console.log(settings.xhr());
    }
});