jQuery and AJAX response header

So I've got this jQuery AJAX call, and the response comes from the server in the form of a 302 redirect. I'd like to take this redirect and load it in an iframe, but when I try to view the header info with a javascript alert, it comes up null, even though firebug sees it correctly.

Here's the code, if it'll help:

$j.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url:'url.do',
    data: formData,
    complete: function(resp){
        alert(resp.getAllResponseHeaders());
    }
});

I don't really have access to the server-side stuff in order to move the URL to the response body, which I know would be the easiest solution, so any help with the parsing of the header would be fantastic.

cballou's solution will work if you are using an old version of jquery. In newer versions you can also try:

  $.ajax({
   type: 'POST',
   url:'url.do',
   data: formData,
   success: function(data, textStatus, request){
        alert(request.getResponseHeader('some_header'));
   },
   error: function (request, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert(request.getResponseHeader('some_header'));
   }
  });

According to docs the XMLHttpRequest object is available as of jQuery 1.4.

If this is a CORS request, you may see all headers in debug tools (such as Chrome->Inspect Element->Network), but the xHR object will only retrieve the header (via xhr.getResponseHeader('Header')) if such a header is a simple response header:

• Content-Type
• Last-modified
• Content-Language
• Cache-Control
• Expires
• Pragma

If it is not in this set, it must be present in the Access-Control-Expose-Headers header returned by the server.

About the case in question, if it is a CORS request, one will only be able to retrieve the Location header through the XMLHttpRequest object if, and only if, the header below is also present:

Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Location

If its not a CORS request, XMLHttpRequest will have no problem retrieving it.

 var geturl;
  geturl = $.ajax({
    type: "GET",
    url: 'http://....',
    success: function () {
      alert("done!"+ geturl.getAllResponseHeaders());
    }
  });

The unfortunate truth about AJAX and the 302 redirect is that you can't get the headers from the return because the browser never gives them to the XHR. When a browser sees a 302 it automatically applies the redirect. In this case, you would see the header in firebug because the browser got it, but you would not see it in ajax, because the browser did not pass it. This is why the success and the error handlers never get called. Only the complete handler is called.

http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E302.html

The 302 response from the Web server should always include an alternative URL to which redirection should occur. If it does, a Web browser will immediately retry the alternative URL. So you never actually see a 302 error in a Web browser

Here are some stackoverflow posts on the subject. Some of the posts describe hacks to get around this issue.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/199099/how-to-manage-a-redirect-request-after-a-jquery-ajax-call

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/373087/catching-302-found-in-javascript/1534604#1534604

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1393280/http-redirect-301-vs-302-temporary-vs-permanent/1393298#1393298

The underlying XMLHttpRequest object used by jQuery will always silently follow redirects rather than return a 302 status code. Therefore, you can't use jQuery's AJAX request functionality to get the returned URL. Instead, you need to put all the data into a form and submit the form with the target attribute set to the value of the name attribute of the iframe:

$('#myIframe').attr('name', 'myIframe');

var form = $('<form method="POST" action="url.do"></form>').attr('target', 'myIframe');
$('<input type="hidden" />').attr({name: 'search', value: 'test'}).appendTo(form);

form.appendTo(document.body);
form.submit();

The server's url.do page will be loaded in the iframe, but when its 302 status arrives, the iframe will be redirected to the final destination.

try this:

type: "GET",
async: false,
complete: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus) {
    var headers = XMLHttpRequest.getAllResponseHeaders();
}

UPDATE 2018 FOR JQUERY 3 AND LATER

I know this is an old question but none of the above solutions worked for me. Here is the solution that worked:

//I only created this function as I am making many ajax calls with different urls and appending the result to different divs
function makeAjaxCall(requestType, urlTo, resultAreaId){
    	var jqxhr = $.ajax({
    		type: requestType,
    		url: urlTo
    	});
    	//this section is executed when the server responds with no error 
    	jqxhr.done(function(){
           
    	});
    	//this section is executed when the server responds with error
    	jqxhr.fail(function(){
    		        		
    	})
    	//this section is always executed
    	jqxhr.always(function(){
    		console.log("getting header " + jqxhr.getResponseHeader('testHeader'));
    	});
    }

+1 to PleaseStand and here is my other hack:

after searching and found that the "cross ajax request" could not get response headers from XHR object, I gave up. and use iframe instead.

1. <iframe style="display:none"></iframe>
2. $("iframe").attr("src", "http://the_url_you_want_to_access")
//this is my aim!!!
3. $("iframe").contents().find('#someID').html()