Using jQuery validate to upload a form, using ajax in the submitHandler()… not working

Question

I am using jquery validate with a form. I want to submit the form using ajax. When I put the ajax call in validate's submitHandler() The browser hangs. What's going on?

The error message I get when I enable the validate method's debug is:

uncaught exception: [Exception... "Illegal operation on WrappedNative prototype object" nsresult: "0x8057000c (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_OP_ON_WN_PROTO)" location: "JS frame :: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js :: f :: line 132" data: no]

Which is too arcane for me to make sense of.

Some code:

$(document).ready(function() {
$("#loginForm").validate({
        debug: true,
        errorLabelContainer: $('div.error'),
        wrapper: 'li',
        rules:  {
            last_name: {
                required: true
            }
        },
        messages: {
            last_name: {
                required: "Please enter your last name."
            }
        },
        submitHandler: function(form){
            $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "test.php",
                data: form,
                success: function(msg){
                    console.log( "Data Saved: " + msg );
                },
                error: function(msg){
                    console.log( "Error: " + msg);
                }
            });
        }
    });

});

The form is a very vanilla form. Submitting via a standard POST works fine. Also, the validation works fine... it's just the submitting with ajax part that fails me.

Answer 1

You'll probably want to serialise that form before sending it - you probably don't want to send a DOM object

edit RE:comment - to select only some inputs and serialize -

$(form).find(":input[name=inp1] :input[name=inp2]").serialize()

Answer 2

call ajax method with php function

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://dev.jquery.com/view/trunk/plugins/validate/jquery.validate.js"></script>

class Ajax{
public function submitForm($data=array()){
    //form - name attribute
    //do   - ajax page do_
    // get - ajax result
    return '<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
                $(document).ready(function (data){
                    $(\'form[name='.$data['form'].']\').validate({
                            submitHandler: function(form) {
                                $.ajax({
                                    method : \'post\',
                                    url    : \'' . AJAX_PATH . ''. $data['do'].'\',
                                    data   : $(this).serialize(),
                                    dataType : \'html\',
                                    success : function(data){
                                        $(\'form[name='.$data['form'].']\').slideUp(1000);
                                        $(\''. $data['get'] .'\').html(data).fadeIn(1000);
                                        //$(\''. $data['get'] .'\').html(data).fadeIn(1000);
                                    },
                                    error : function(data) {alert(\'missing file\'); }
                                });
                                return false;
                             }
                    });
                });
            </script>';
}

}

$ajax = new Ajax();

<?php echo $ajax->submitForm(array('do'=>'do_register.php','form'=>'register','get'=>'#message'));?>

Answer 3

Just to elaborate of tobyodavies answer. You might want to change your submission to

        $.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: "test.php",
            data: $(form).serialize(),
            success: function(msg){
                console.log( "Data Saved: " + msg );
            },
            error: function(msg){
                console.log( "Error: " + msg);
            }
        });

The ajax function expects the data option to be a string (not entirely true but for this case it's fine) while your passing in the forms dom object.