500 Internal Server Error - All Ajax calls, PHP

Question

Issue

I'm receiving the same error (500 Internal Server error) for all AJAX calls on a site I'm developing on my localhost (WAMP). I'm beginning to think that it might be the way my server is set up. Maybe I'm missing a PHP extension or something? Any help would be much appreciated.

Testing

I know the code works fine because i've navigated to the ajax action on my browser. Also the code actually saves data to the database so I know it's finding the correct script and running it ok.

Code

I've simplified the code to make testing easier.

JS

    $.ajax({type: 'GET',
        url: '/cms/performances/deleteperformance',
        data: 'id=' + id,
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function(result)
        {
            switch(result)
            {
                case 1:
                    //Refresh the page
                    location.reload();
                    break;
                case 0:
                    alert('error');
                    break;
                case 2:
                    alert('Incorrect call');
                    break;
                default:
                    alert('default');
                    break;
            }
        },
        error: function(xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError)
        {
            var httpCode = xhr.status;
            alert(httpCode + ': ' + thrownError);
        }
    });

PHP

public function deleteperformanceAction()
{
    $this->_helper->layout()->disableLayout();
    $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender(true);
    echo json_encode(1);
}

Answer 1

Add this code at the top of your PHP:

ini_set('display_errors', 1); 
error_reporting(E_ALL);

That will show you what the problem is in your PHP code. If it's a syntax error (seems quite likely for a code 500), then you'll need to either enable these options in your php.ini , httpd.conf or .htaccess files. Alternatively, just take a look in your web server error log for the issue.

A 500 error is not a problem with your JS - it's server-side.

Answer 2

I've finally got to the bottom of this. In fact there was nothing wrong with the code. However, I did have a plugin that wasn't being found during bootstrapping. This was then being run through my error handler which was changing the header to a 500. Once I'd removed the unfound plugin everything was fine.

Stupid mistake to make I suppose!