None of the above solutions handled deep nested params with just jQuery,
so here is my two cents solution.
If you're using jQuery and you need to handle deep nested parameters, you can use this function below:
/**
* Original code found here: https://github.com/mgalante/jquery.redirect/blob/master/jquery.redirect.js
* I just simplified it for my own taste.
*/
function postForm(parameters, url) {
// generally we post the form with a blank action attribute
if ('undefined' === typeof url) {
url = '';
}
//----------------------------------------
// SOME HELPER FUNCTIONS
//----------------------------------------
var getForm = function (url, values) {
values = removeNulls(values);
var form = $('<form>')
.attr("method", 'POST')
.attr("action", url);
iterateValues(values, [], form, null);
return form;
};
var removeNulls = function (values) {
var propNames = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(values);
for (var i = 0; i < propNames.length; i++) {
var propName = propNames[i];
if (values[propName] === null || values[propName] === undefined) {
delete values[propName];
} else if (typeof values[propName] === 'object') {
values[propName] = removeNulls(values[propName]);
} else if (values[propName].length < 1) {
delete values[propName];
}
}
return values;
};
var iterateValues = function (values, parent, form, isArray) {
var i, iterateParent = [];
Object.keys(values).forEach(function (i) {
if (typeof values[i] === "object") {
iterateParent = parent.slice();
iterateParent.push(i);
iterateValues(values[i], iterateParent, form, Array.isArray(values[i]));
} else {
form.append(getInput(i, values[i], parent, isArray));
}
});
};
var getInput = function (name, value, parent, array) {
var parentString;
if (parent.length > 0) {
parentString = parent[0];
var i;
for (i = 1; i < parent.length; i += 1) {
parentString += "[" + parent[i] + "]";
}
if (array) {
name = parentString + "[" + name + "]";
} else {
name = parentString + "[" + name + "]";
}
}
return $("<input>").attr("type", "hidden")
.attr("name", name)
.attr("value", value);
};
//----------------------------------------
// NOW THE SYNOPSIS
//----------------------------------------
var generatedForm = getForm(url, parameters);
$('body').append(generatedForm);
generatedForm.submit();
generatedForm.remove();
}
Here is an example of how to use it.
The html code:
<button id="testButton">Button</button>
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#testButton").click(function () {
postForm({
csrf_token: "abcd",
rows: [
{
user_id: 1,
permission_group_id: 1
},
{
user_id: 1,
permission_group_id: 2
}
],
object: {
apple: {
color: "red",
age: "23 days",
types: [
"golden",
"opal",
]
}
},
the_null: null, // this will be dropped, like non-checked checkboxes are dropped
});
});
});
</script>
And if you click the test button, it will post the form and you will get the following values in POST:
array(3) {
["csrf_token"] => string(4) "abcd"
["rows"] => array(2) {
[0] => array(2) {
["user_id"] => string(1) "1"
["permission_group_id"] => string(1) "1"
}
[1] => array(2) {
["user_id"] => string(1) "1"
["permission_group_id"] => string(1) "2"
}
}
["object"] => array(1) {
["apple"] => array(3) {
["color"] => string(3) "red"
["age"] => string(7) "23 days"
["types"] => array(2) {
[0] => string(6) "golden"
[1] => string(4) "opal"
}
}
}
}
Note: if you want to post the form to another url than the current page, you can specify the url as the second argument of the postForm function.
So for instance (to re-use your example):
postForm({'q':'a'}, 'http://example.com/');
Hope this helps.
Note2: the code was taken from the redirect plugin. I basically just simplified it
for my needs.
