PHP trigger AJAX error code without using array

Question

I want to be able to get a PHP script called via AJAX to return with an error code that the jQuery AJAX handler error: will handle. I don't want to use a JSON array - I'd like to keep it as clean as possible. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

James

Answer 1

If you want to trigger the AJAX error handler, just pass back something other than a 200! Try this:

<?php
  header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
  exit();
?>

Just remember to do two things:

1. Try to send the correct error code to comply with HTTP methods. i.e. if you page throws an error, then you should return a 500, etc. You can see a reference here at the w3.org site.
2. Make sure you send the header before ANY other content except whitespace.

This should be the clean solution you are going for.