PHP returning empty POST array

Question

JavaScript jQuery post:

var animals = {
    animalsArray: [],
    tripId: <?php echo $_GET['id']; ?>
};

$('.student-check').each(function() {
    animals.animalsArray.push($(this).attr('id'));
});

var sendMe = JSON.stringify(animals);

$.post("saveChanges.php", sendMe, function(response) {
    console.log(response);
}, "json");

PHP handler:

echo json_encode(print_r($_POST, true));
// Array
// (
// )

Why is the array empty? I'm posting data but the response returns an empty array.

try json_encode($_POST, true);

Rakesh Sharma
– Rakesh Sharma

2014-03-18 09:27:03 +00:00
Commented Mar 18, 2014 at 9:27 — Rakesh Sharma
– Rakesh Sharma, Commented Mar 18, 2014 at 9:27
What happens if you just print_r($_POST);

Dean Whitehouse
– Dean Whitehouse

2014-03-18 09:27:13 +00:00
Commented Mar 18, 2014 at 9:27 — Dean Whitehouse
– Dean Whitehouse, Commented Mar 18, 2014 at 9:27

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:25:04Z

3

You are encoding the data as JSON, which isn't a format PHP handles natively for form submissions.

Remove var sendMe = JSON.stringify(animals); and pass animals to $.post instead of sendMe. jQuery will encode it using one of the standard formats supported by HTML forms and PHP.

Alternatively see this question for how to get the raw request body.

Also:

echo json_encode(print_r($_POST, true));

json_encode and print_r are both functions that take a data structure and express it as a string. Use one or the other, not both.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:25

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 18, 2014 at 9:27

Quentin

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1 Comment

jskidd3 Over a year ago

Thanks! If I wanted to say access the tripId inside the animals object, would I go about doing that like $_POST['tripId']?

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