Send POST data using XMLHttpRequest
JavascriptAjaxFormsPostXmlhttprequestJavascript Problem Overview
I'd like to send some data using an XMLHttpRequest in JavaScript.
Say I have the following form in HTML:
<form name="inputform" action="somewhere" method="post">
<input type="hidden" value="person" name="user">
<input type="hidden" value="password" name="pwd">
<input type="hidden" value="place" name="organization">
<input type="hidden" value="key" name="requiredkey">
</form>
How can I write the equivalent using an XMLHttpRequest in JavaScript?
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
The code below demonstrates on how to do this.
var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
var url = 'get_data.php';
var params = 'orem=ipsum&name=binny';
http.open('POST', url, true);
//Send the proper header information along with the request
http.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
http.onreadystatechange = function() {//Call a function when the state changes.
if(http.readyState == 4 && http.status == 200) {
alert(http.responseText);
}
}
http.send(params);
In case you have/create an object you can turn it into params using the following code, i.e:
var params = new Object();
params.myparam1 = myval1;
params.myparam2 = myval2;
// Turn the data object into an array of URL-encoded key/value pairs.
let urlEncodedData = "", urlEncodedDataPairs = [], name;
for( name in params ) {
urlEncodedDataPairs.push(encodeURIComponent(name)+'='+encodeURIComponent(params[name]));
}
Solution 2 - Javascript
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'somewhere', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
xhr.onload = function () {
// do something to response
console.log(this.responseText);
};
xhr.send('user=person&pwd=password&organization=place&requiredkey=key');
Or if you can count on browser support you could use FormData:
var data = new FormData();
data.append('user', 'person');
data.append('pwd', 'password');
data.append('organization', 'place');
data.append('requiredkey', 'key');
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'somewhere', true);
xhr.onload = function () {
// do something to response
console.log(this.responseText);
};
xhr.send(data);
Solution 3 - Javascript
Use modern JavaScript!
I'd suggest looking into fetch. It is the ES5 equivalent and uses Promises. It is much more readable and easily customizable.
const url = "http://example.com";
fetch(url, {
method : "POST",
body: new FormData(document.getElementById("inputform")),
// -- or --
// body : JSON.stringify({
// user : document.getElementById('user').value,
// ...
// })
}).then(
response => response.text() // .json(), etc.
// same as function(response) {return response.text();}
).then(
html => console.log(html)
);
In Node.js, you'll need to import fetch using:
const fetch = require("node-fetch");
If you want to use it synchronously (doesn't work in top scope):
const json = await fetch(url, optionalOptions)
.then(response => response.json()) // .text(), etc.
.catch((e) => {});
More Info:
Solution 4 - Javascript
Here is a complete solution with application-json:
// Input values will be grabbed by ID
// return stops normal action and runs login()
<button onclick="return login()">Submit</button>
<script>
function login() {
// Form fields, see IDs above
const params = {
email: document.querySelector('#loginEmail').value,
password: document.querySelector('#loginPassword').value
}
const http = new XMLHttpRequest()
http.open('POST', '/login')
http.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/json')
http.send(JSON.stringify(params)) // Make sure to stringify
http.onload = function() {
// Do whatever with response
alert(http.responseText)
}
}
</script>
Ensure that your Backend API can parse JSON.
For example, in Express JS:
import bodyParser from 'body-parser'
app.use(bodyParser.json())
Solution 5 - Javascript
Minimal use of FormData to submit an AJAX request
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge, chrome=1"/>
<script>
"use strict";
function submitForm(oFormElement)
{
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onload = function(){ alert (xhr.responseText); } // success case
xhr.onerror = function(){ alert (xhr.responseText); } // failure case
xhr.open (oFormElement.method, oFormElement.action, true);
xhr.send (new FormData (oFormElement));
return false;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form method="post" action="somewhere" onsubmit="return submitForm(this);">
<input type="hidden" value="person" name="user" />
<input type="hidden" value="password" name="pwd" />
<input type="hidden" value="place" name="organization" />
<input type="hidden" value="key" name="requiredkey" />
<input type="submit" value="post request"/>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Remarks
-
This does not fully answer the OP question because it requires the user to click in order to submit the request. But this may be useful to people searching for this kind of simple solution.
-
This example is very simple and does not support the
GETmethod. If you are interesting by more sophisticated examples, please have a look at the excellent MDN documentation. See also similar answer about XMLHttpRequest to Post HTML Form. -
Limitation of this solution: As pointed out by Justin Blank and Thomas Munk (see their comments),
FormDatais not supported by IE9 and lower, and default browser on Android 2.3.
Solution 6 - Javascript
NO PLUGINS NEEDED!
Select the below code and drag that into in BOOKMARK BAR (if you don't see it, enable from Browser Settings), then EDIT that link :
javascript:var my_params = prompt("Enter your parameters", "var1=aaaa&var2=bbbbb"); var Target_LINK = prompt("Enter destination", location.href); function post(path, params) { var xForm = document.createElement("form"); xForm.setAttribute("method", "post"); xForm.setAttribute("action", path); for (var key in params) { if (params.hasOwnProperty(key)) { var hiddenField = document.createElement("input"); hiddenField.setAttribute("name", key); hiddenField.setAttribute("value", params[key]); xForm.appendChild(hiddenField); } } var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); xhr.onload = function () { alert(xhr.responseText); }; xhr.open(xForm.method, xForm.action, true); xhr.send(new FormData(xForm)); return false; } parsed_params = {}; my_params.split("&").forEach(function (item) { var s = item.split("="), k = s[0], v = s[1]; parsed_params[k] = v; }); post(Target_LINK, parsed_params); void(0);
That's all! Now you can visit any website, and click that button in BOOKMARK BAR!
NOTE:
The above method sends data using XMLHttpRequest method, so, you have to be on the same domain while triggering the script. That's why I prefer sending data with a simulated FORM SUBMITTING, which can send the code to any domain - here is code for that:
javascript:var my_params=prompt("Enter your parameters","var1=aaaa&var2=bbbbb"); var Target_LINK=prompt("Enter destination", location.href); function post(path, params) { var xForm= document.createElement("form"); xForm.setAttribute("method", "post"); xForm.setAttribute("action", path); xForm.setAttribute("target", "_blank"); for(var key in params) { if(params.hasOwnProperty(key)) { var hiddenField = document.createElement("input"); hiddenField.setAttribute("name", key); hiddenField.setAttribute("value", params[key]); xForm.appendChild(hiddenField); } } document.body.appendChild(xForm); xForm.submit(); } parsed_params={}; my_params.split("&").forEach(function(item) {var s = item.split("="), k=s[0], v=s[1]; parsed_params[k] = v;}); post(Target_LINK, parsed_params); void(0);
Solution 7 - Javascript
I have faced similar problem, using the same post and and this link I have resolved my issue.
var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
var url = "MY_URL.Com/login.aspx";
var params = 'eid=' +userEmailId+'&pwd='+userPwd
http.open("POST", url, true);
// Send the proper header information along with the request
//http.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
//http.setRequestHeader("Content-Length", params.length);// all browser wont support Refused to set unsafe header "Content-Length"
//http.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");//Refused to set unsafe header "Connection"
// Call a function when the state
http.onreadystatechange = function() {
if(http.readyState == 4 && http.status == 200) {
alert(http.responseText);
}
}
http.send(params);
This link has completed information.
Solution 8 - Javascript
There's some duplicates that touch on this, and nobody really expounds on it. I'll borrow the accepted answer example to illustrate
http.open('POST', url, true);
http.send('lorem=ipsum&name=binny');
I oversimplified this (I use http.onload(function() {}) instead of that answer's older methodology) for the sake of illustration. If you use this as-is, you'll find your server is probably interpreting the POST body as a string and not actual key=value parameters (i.e. PHP won't show any $_POST variables). You must pass the form header in to get that, and do that before http.send()
http.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
If you're using JSON and not URL-encoded data, pass application/json instead
Solution 9 - Javascript
var util = {
getAttribute: function (dom, attr) {
if (dom.getAttribute !== undefined) {
return dom.getAttribute(attr);
} else if (dom[attr] !== undefined) {
return dom[attr];
} else {
return null;
}
},
addEvent: function (obj, evtName, func) {
//Primero revisar attributos si existe o no.
if (obj.addEventListener) {
obj.addEventListener(evtName, func, false);
} else if (obj.attachEvent) {
obj.attachEvent(evtName, func);
} else {
if (this.getAttribute("on" + evtName) !== undefined) {
obj["on" + evtName] = func;
} else {
obj[evtName] = func;
}
}
},
removeEvent: function (obj, evtName, func) {
if (obj.removeEventListener) {
obj.removeEventListener(evtName, func, false);
} else if (obj.detachEvent) {
obj.detachEvent(evtName, func);
} else {
if (this.getAttribute("on" + evtName) !== undefined) {
obj["on" + evtName] = null;
} else {
obj[evtName] = null;
}
}
},
getAjaxObject: function () {
var xhttp = null;
//XDomainRequest
if ("XMLHttpRequest" in window) {
xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
} else {
// code for IE6, IE5
xhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return xhttp;
}
};
//START CODE HERE.
var xhr = util.getAjaxObject();
var isUpload = (xhr && ('upload' in xhr) && ('onprogress' in xhr.upload));
if (isUpload) {
util.addEvent(xhr, "progress", xhrEvt.onProgress());
util.addEvent(xhr, "loadstart", xhrEvt.onLoadStart);
util.addEvent(xhr, "abort", xhrEvt.onAbort);
}
util.addEvent(xhr, "readystatechange", xhrEvt.ajaxOnReadyState);
var xhrEvt = {
onProgress: function (e) {
if (e.lengthComputable) {
//Loaded bytes.
var cLoaded = e.loaded;
}
},
onLoadStart: function () {
},
onAbort: function () {
},
onReadyState: function () {
var state = xhr.readyState;
var httpStatus = xhr.status;
if (state === 4 && httpStatus === 200) {
//Completed success.
var data = xhr.responseText;
}
}
};
//CONTINUE YOUR CODE HERE.
xhr.open('POST', 'mypage.php', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
if ('FormData' in window) {
var formData = new FormData();
formData.append("user", "aaaaa");
formData.append("pass", "bbbbb");
xhr.send(formData);
} else {
xhr.send("?user=aaaaa&pass=bbbbb");
}
Solution 10 - Javascript
Try to use json object instead of formdata. below is the code working for me. formdata doesnot work for me either, hence I came up with this solution.
var jdata = new Object();
jdata.level = levelVal; // level is key and levelVal is value
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.open("POST", "http://MyURL", true);
xhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
xhttp.send(JSON.stringify(jdata));
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
console.log(this.responseText);
}
}
Solution 11 - Javascript
This helped me as I wanted to use only xmlHttpRequest and post an object as form data:
function sendData(data) {
var XHR = new XMLHttpRequest();
var FD = new FormData();
// Push our data into our FormData object
for(name in data) {
FD.append(name, data[name]);
}
// Set up our request
XHR.open('POST', 'https://example.com/cors.php');
// Send our FormData object; HTTP headers are set automatically
XHR.send(FD);
}
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Forms/Sending_forms_through_JavaScript
Solution 12 - Javascript
Short & modern
You can catch form input values using FormData and send them by fetch
fetch(form.action, {method:'post', body: new FormData(form)});
function send() {
let form = document.forms['inputform'];
fetch(form.action, {method:'post', body: new FormData(form)});
}
<form name="inputform" action="somewhere" method="post">
<input value="person" name="user">
<input type="hidden" value="password" name="pwd">
<input value="place" name="organization">
<input type="hidden" value="key" name="requiredkey">
</form>
<!-- I remove type="hidden" for some inputs above only for show them --><br>
Look: chrome console>network and click <button onclick="send()">send</button>
Solution 13 - Javascript
Just for feature readers finding this question. I found that the accepted answer works fine as long as you have a given path, but if you leave it blank it will fail in IE. Here is what I came up with:
function post(path, data, callback) {
"use strict";
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
if (path === "") {
path = "/";
}
request.open('POST', path, true);
request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8');
request.onload = function (d) {
callback(d.currentTarget.response);
};
request.send(serialize(data));
}
You can you it like so:
post("", {orem: ipsum, name: binny}, function (response) {
console.log(respone);
})