How to POST a django form with AJAX & jQuery

Question

I've checked out tons of tutorials for django AJAX forms, but each one of them tells you one way of doing it, none of them is simple and I'm a bit confused since I've never worked with AJAX.

I have a model called "note", a modelform for it, and inside the template I need that everytime a note element sends the stop() signal (from jQuery Sortables) django updates the object.

My current code:

views.py

def save_note(request, space_name):

    """
    Saves the note content and position within the table.
    """
    place = get_object_or_404(Space, url=space_name)
    note_form = NoteForm(request.POST or None)

    if request.method == "POST" and request.is_ajax:
        msg = "The operation has been received correctly."          
        print request.POST

    else:
        msg = "GET petitions are not allowed for this view."

    return HttpResponse(msg)

JavaScript:

function saveNote(noteObj) {
    /*
        saveNote(noteObj) - Saves the notes making an AJAX call to django. This
        function is meant to be used with a Sortable 'stop' event.
        Arguments: noteObj, note object.
    */
    var noteID = noteObj.attr('id');

    $.post("../save_note/", {
        noteid: noteID,
        phase: "Example phase",
        parent: $('#' + noteID).parent('td').attr('id'),
        title: $('#' + noteID + ' textarea').val(),
        message: "Blablbla",
    });
}

The current code gets the data from the template and prints it in the terminal. I don't know how I can manipulate this data. I've seen some people manages the data through jqueryforms to send the data to django.

How can I access the data sent by AJAX and update the note object?

Answer 1

Since you are using jQuery why not use the following:

<script language="JavaScript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('#YOUR_FORM').submit(function() { // catch the form's submit event
            $.ajax({ // create an AJAX call...
                data: $(this).serialize(), // get the form data
                type: $(this).attr('method'), // GET or POST
                url: $(this).attr('action'), // the file to call
                success: function(response) { // on success..
                    $('#DIV_CONTAINING_FORM').html(response); // update the DIV 
                }
            });
            return false;
        });
    });
</script>

EDIT

As pointed out in the comments sometimes the above won't work. So try the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
    var frm = $('#FORM-ID');
    frm.submit(function () {
        $.ajax({
            type: frm.attr('method'),
            url: frm.attr('action'),
            data: frm.serialize(),
            success: function (data) {
                $("#SOME-DIV").html(data);
            },
            error: function(data) {
                $("#MESSAGE-DIV").html("Something went wrong!");
            }
        });
        return false;
    });
</script>