Send POST data using XMLHttpRequest

I'd like to send some data using an XMLHttpRequest in JavaScript.

Say I have the following form in HTML:

<form name="inputform" action="somewhere" method="post">
  <input type="hidden" value="person" name="user">
  <input type="hidden" value="password" name="pwd">
  <input type="hidden" value="place" name="organization">
  <input type="hidden" value="key" name="requiredkey">
</form>

How can I write the equivalent using an XMLHttpRequest in JavaScript?


The code below demonstrates on how to do this.

var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
var url = 'get_data.php';
var params = 'orem=ipsum&name=binny';
http.open('POST', url, true);

//Send the proper header information along with the request
http.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');

http.onreadystatechange = function() {//Call a function when the state changes.
    if(http.readyState == 4 && http.status == 200) {
        alert(http.responseText);
    }
}
http.send(params);

In case you have/create an object you can turn it into params using the following code, i.e:

var params = new Object();
params.myparam1 = myval1;
params.myparam2 = myval2;

// Turn the data object into an array of URL-encoded key/value pairs.
let urlEncodedData = "", urlEncodedDataPairs = [], name;
for( name in params ) {
 urlEncodedDataPairs.push(encodeURIComponent(name)+'='+encodeURIComponent(params[name]));
}

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'somewhere', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
xhr.onload = function () {
    // do something to response
    console.log(this.responseText);
};
xhr.send('user=person&pwd=password&organization=place&requiredkey=key');

Or if you can count on browser support you could use FormData:

var data = new FormData();
data.append('user', 'person');
data.append('pwd', 'password');
data.append('organization', 'place');
data.append('requiredkey', 'key');

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'somewhere', true);
xhr.onload = function () {
    // do something to response
    console.log(this.responseText);
};
xhr.send(data);