Send a multi dimensional array via $.post using jquery

Question

I have a global variable I'm using to store a bunch of information in a project I'm working on. It is an object with various values and I guess other objects in it. For example...

$.myVar {
    currentProj : "Project 1",
    allProjs : [],
    toggleVar : 0
}

Now as the program runs and I do things, I'm actually adding arrays within allProjs. I want to use the array index as the name of the project, and then it contains a bunch of information. Here is a sample of what the object looks like after running the program for a few minutes.

(copied from Chrome's console):

$.myVar
    Object
    currentProj: "McB2"
    toggleVar: 0
    allProjs: Array[0]
        McB1: Array[0]
            length: 0
            __proto__: Array[0]
        McB2: Array[4]
            0: "02070124"
            1: "02030036"
            2: "02090313"
            3: "02090450"
            length: 4

Now I want to pass this data to a PHP file using $.post so I can convert it to JSON and save it on the server.

I do this basically by just running:

$.post('saveJSON.php', $.myVar, function(data) {
    $('#dumpspace').html(data);
});

For debugging I've got the PHP file just outputting:

print_r($_REQUEST);

Now I would expect a multi-dimensional array that I could convert to JSON and then save, but all it is spitting out is:

Array ( [currentProj] => McB2 [toggelVar] => 0 )

So I can see that it's not sending the the allProj section of the object, but I'm not sure why! It does seem to show up when I look at the object in the console, so I'm not sure what I'm missing.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Clarification

The first section, where I declare allProjs, is it possible I'm doing something wrong there? When I run Stringify, I end up with a similarly wrong result:

JSON.stringify($.myVar)
"{"currentProj":"McB2","allProjs":[],"toggleVar":0}"

jAndy · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-23 19:39:15Z

2

You need to .stringify the object / array into a JSON string. All "modern" browsers do support this natively with JSON.stringify(obj). If you need to support "older" browser version aswell, you need to go to http://www.json.org and download the json2.js lib which offers the same functionality.

The other way around, if you want to receive a JSONized string from a server, you need to either tell jQuery that you're expecting a json string by passing 'json' into your $.post() call, or you need to parse the received data yourself by again accessing the JSON object. JSON.parse(json_string) will return a Javascript object from a passed in JSON string.

answered Nov 23, 2010 at 19:39

jAndy

237k57 gold badges313 silver badges363 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

McB Over a year ago

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried running that and still end up missing out on the allProj piece of the object. Is it something to do with the way I'm declaring the allProj array upfront? I've updated the post above to include how I'm originally declaring my global var. I suspect this may be where I've done something wrong?

McB · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-23 20:11:54Z

1

Figured out my problem. When I was declaring the object originally I was making allProj and Array by putting in []. If I put it in as allProj : {}, then it works perfectly! Thanks for the suggestions, helped narrow down my mistake.

-M

answered Nov 23, 2010 at 20:11

McB

1,2421 gold badge20 silver badges40 bronze badges

Comments

wilsonpage · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-23 19:43:30Z

0

I believe you must first convert your array to the JSON format before posting to PHP.

This is the method I have used in the past:

var jsonOb = JSON.stringify(yourArray);

$.post(
"yourPage.php",
{jsonOb:jsonOb},
function(r){
//your success response
}
);

Hope this does the trick brother!

W.

answered Nov 23, 2010 at 19:43

wilsonpage

17.7k23 gold badges106 silver badges150 bronze badges

1 Comment

McB Over a year ago

Thanks for the suggestion! Stringify doesn't seem to output the expected result either. Interestingly, when I name my Key Value pairs, the parent array always says length of 0. Any idea why this would happen?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Send a multi dimensional array via $.post using jquery

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related