json - Setting processData to false in jQuery breaks my AJAX request

Question

I've googled for a while now and can only find what processData: false does. I can't find anyone who has experienced this same issue.

I'm passing JSON back to the server and do not want jQuery to automatically convert the data to a query string so I'm setting processData to false. I can see the request firing if I take out processData, but as soon as I put it in I do not see any requests being made (using Firebug & Chrome dev tools).

$.ajax({
            url: myUrl,
            type: "POST",
            data: {foo: "bar"},
            processData: false,
            contentType: 'application/json'
        });

The request I was initially making was a bit more complex than this but I've simplified it to try to narrow down the problem but this simple piece of code does not work either (again, it does work if I comment out processData). Also, I am not seeing any JavaScript errors in the console.

Edit

For future web searchers: As lonesomeday pointed out, jQuery will not throw any errors if you supply either a JS object or an incorrectly formatted JSON string. It will simply not fire the request.

Answer 1

You want to pass the data as JSON. You are passing a Javascript object. JSON is a way of serializing Javascript objects to strings so that they can be passed around without compatibility issues.

You actually want to pass the JSON in a string:

$.ajax({
    url: myUrl,
    type: "POST",
    data: '{"foo": "bar"}',
    processData: false,
    contentType: 'application/json'
});