AJAX Help... wits end.

[listenmirndt]

This script gets as far as printing out "Just a second..." but it never posts to the page (ajaxphp.php) I have set ajaxphp.php just to print out Hello if it works, been working on this for hours, and I am totally at my wits end.. anyone have any insight?

<form method="post" action="javascript:insert()">
<input id="title" style="width: 100%;" type="text" name="TITLE">
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
<div id="response"></div>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
var nocache = 0;
function insert() {

    document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = "Just a second..."

    var postvar= encodeURIComponent(document.getElementById('title').value);
    var postnew= document.getElementById('title').value;

    nocache = Math.random();

    http.open('get','ajaxphp.php');

    http.onreadystatechange = insertReply;
    http.send(null);

}

function insertReply() {
if(http.readyState == 4){
var response = http.responseText;
document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = ''+response;
}
}
</script>

(ajax.php)

<?php echo "Hello!"; ?>

[johanafm]

You have to learn to use whatever debugging tools are at your disposal in whatever browser you use. My personal favourite is still the Firebug plugin for Firefox, but all (major) browsers have built in tools that should be sufficient these days. They will for example let you examine your network traffic (was any XHR request sent? with what data, headers etc?). You will be able to set break points to inspect the status of your code at any given point.

But at the very least, always have something open that will give you immediate feedback of any errors that occur. In this particular case, something along the lines of "reference error: http is not defined"

[Weedpacket]

When posting code, please use the formatting tags described in the FAQs to format your code and so make it easier to read, thank you.

[sandthipe]

Unless the bloat of jQuery scares you off (and it might should), jQuery offers a great and simple ajax method. Easy syntax and it tries to account for browser inconsistencies. jQuery is to ajax calls as phpMailer is to emails. http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/