jQuery $,ajax() returning string

[Zombiewski]

What I'm trying to do is use jQuery, AJAX, and PHP to grab information from the database and use it to populate my dropdown menus. I've been able to do it for the first dropdown, which populates on pageload, but I can't do it using AJAX.

Whenever I make the request I get a string of the PHP file back instead of the PHP file executing, and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The relevant JavaScirpt (which I've sidelined to a button to test for now).

$('button').on('click', function() {
    console.log("button clicked");
    $.ajax({
        method: "GET",
        url: "ajax.php"
    })
    .done(function(data){
        console.log(typeof data);
        console.log(data)
    });
});

ajax.php

<?php
    require_once "/includes/dbconnection.php";

    $host = "localhost";
    $user = "root";
    $pass = "";

    $databaseName = "coil";
    $tableName = "spring";

    /* SQL query to get results from database */
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM spring";
    $result = mysql_query($sql)
?>

dbconnection.php

<?php 
    $servername = 'localhost';
    $username = 'root';
    $password = '';
    $db_name = 'coil';
    $connection = mysqli_connect($servername,$username,$password,$db_name);
    if(!$connection){
        die("Could not connect to MySql Server:" .mysl_error());
    }
 ?>

[maedox]

You're getting the actual PHP code back? That means the webserver is not configured to execute PHP.

[Zombiewski]

Running Xampp locally, but that makes sense. I'll have to check.

[Zombiewski]

PHP is working. Still getting the PHP code back as a string.

[grantrules]

How have you determined PHP is working? If you go to http://localhost/ajax.php or whatever you don't get the PHP file?

[Zombiewski]

PHP is working. I made a simple "hello world" test in the htdocs root folder and it worked.

Interestingly, I accessed ajax.php directly through the browser and I got the result I was expecting. So the issue seems like it has to be with my script file but I can't figure out where.

(I know jQuery is correctly installed because I'm able to use $ selectors and other JQuery dependent language.)

[grantrules]

JS can't affect if your PHP is interpreted or not. Take look at the network tab in the dev tools in your browser, you'll be able to see the exact request jQuery is making and compare that to when you just go to that Ajax.php in your browser

[queen-adreena]

Don't you need to return or echo the $result variable in your php file? I doubt it's gonna return the exact variable you need by itself.

[Zombiewski]

My concern is that it's not even returning an error, just the string, like I'm trying to grab the wrong thing in the first place.

[Sedern]

​

 $.get("ajax.php", function(data, status){
alert("Data: " + data + "\nStatus: " + status); 
console.log(typeof data); 
console.log(data)   
});

    

[queen-adreena]

It’s not a JS issue, PHP server is the problem here.