JQuery error option in $.ajax utility

Question

The documentation indicates that the error: option function will make available: XHR instance, a status message string (in this case always error) and an optional exception object returned from the XHR instance (Book: JQuery in Action)

Using the following (in the $.ajax call) I was able to determine I had a "parsererror" and a "timeout" (since I added the timeout: option) error

error: function(request, error){} 

What are other things you evaluate in the error option? do you include the optional exception object?

EDIT: one of the answers indicates all the return errors...learning more about what is of value (for debugging) in the XHR instance and exception object would be helpful

This is a complete $.ajax call:

$.ajax({  type: "post",  url: "http://myServer/cgi-bin/broker" ,  dataType: "text",  data: {  '_service' : 'myService',  '_program' : 'myProgram',  'start' : start,  'end' : end  },  beforeSend: function() {   $("#loading").removeClass("hide");  },  timeout: 5000,  error: function(request,error) {   $("#loading").addClass("hide");   if (error == "timeout") {    $("#error").append("The request timed out, please resubmit");   }   else {    $("#error").append("ERROR: " + error);   }   },   success: function(request) {    $("#loading").addClass("hide");    var t = eval( "(" + request + ")" ) ;   } // End success }); // End ajax method 

Thanks for the input

Answer 1

I find the request more useful than the error.

error:function(xhr,err){     alert("readyState: "+xhr.readyState+"\nstatus: "+xhr.status);     alert("responseText: "+xhr.responseText); }

xhr is XmlHttpRequest.
readyState values are 1:loading, 2:loaded, 3:interactive, 4:complete.
status is the HTTP status number, i.e. 404: not found, 500: server error, 200: ok.
responseText is the response from the server - this could be text or JSON from the web service, or HTML from the web server.