# Why is AJAX returning jibberish?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/why-is-ajax-returning-jibberish/273628>\
**Category:** web dev\
**Created:** [October 17, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/why-is-ajax-returning-jibberish/273628 "2008-10-17T20:15:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NeoDreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ccd318/32.png) [@NeoDreamer](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/NeoDreamer)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/why-is-ajax-returning-jibberish/273628/1 "2008-10-17T20:15:27Z")

</div>

I wrote an AJAX thing to load the HTML of some website into a textarea.

[![](http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7655/beforeyr8.jpg)](http://imageshack.us)

The response returned from the PHP script is strange. The whole PHP file gets sent! I alerted it to see what it was:

[![](http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7131/middlebx1.jpg)](http://imageshack.us)

Then when I actually inserted the response into the DIV, it was all weird. It was missing the textarea tag, the PHP comments, etc…

[![](http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4324/afterkr2.jpg)](http://imageshack.us)

**JS:**

```php

// ============================================================================
// ajax
// args: string - server script file with or without parameters appended to
// to the end
// string - id name of the element you want to insert the server
// response
// ret: void
// about: standard AJAX GET roundtrip
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
function ajax(serverScript, insert)
{
	var xmlHttp;
	
	try
	{
		// Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
		xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
	}
	catch (e)
	{
		// Internet Explorer 6+
		try
		{
			xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
		}
		catch (e)
		{
			// Internet Eplorer 5
			try
			{
				xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
			}
			catch (e)
			{
				alert("Your browser does not support AJAX. Download a newer browser to view this page.");
				return false;
			}
		}
	}
	
	// insert server response into HTML element
	xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = function()
	{
		if(xmlHttp.readyState == 4)
		{
			alert(xmlHttp.responseText);
			document.getElementById(insert).innerHTML = xmlHttp.responseText;
		}
	}
	
	xmlHttp.open("GET", serverScript, true);
	xmlHttp.send(null);
}

// ============================================================================
// loadHtml
// args: none
// ret: void
// about: Loads the start page's HTML into a textarea.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
function loadHtml()
{
	var url = document.getElementById('startPage').value;
	ajax("loadHtml.php?url=" + url, "html");
	
}

```

**PHP:**

```php

<?php

// title: loadHtml.php
// author: ---
// date: 10/17/08
// about: Given a URL, fetches its HTML.
// FIX: check for loading of malicious JS scripts (it doesn't mean if a file
// doesn't have a JS extension, then it isn't JS text inside that file).
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	echo '<textarea>' . file_get_contents($_GET['url']) . '</textarea>';

?>

```

**HTML:**

```php

<h2>start page</h2>
<i>URL of the page to start scraping</i>
<b>URL:</b>
<input type="text" name="startPage" id="startPage" />
<input type="button" value="load" onclick="loadHtml()" />
<b>HTML:</b>
<div id="html">
	<textarea>N/A</textarea>
</div>

```