jquery ajax data string. How do i make an object or escape the string?

Question

I have a button which calls jquery.ajax and submits POST data. I need to get user text from a textarea. So far, no problem. However now i need to set the post data. I have a string in the form as k=v&k2=v2 etc and then i have this user text. I obviously cant write + "&usertext=" + usertext since the text may have code and &kxxx=val which should be inside of the usertext value.

How do i set the ajax data?

Answer 1

http://api.jquery.com/serialize/

You can call the jQuery method serialize on a form to get a valid data structure to pass in to jQuery.ajax instead of building it from scratch:

$.ajax({
  data: $('#myform').serialize()
});

For the values outside of your textarea you can then add them as hidden inputs in your form and they'll be pulled in to the resulting serialize data.

Answer 2

there are at least 2 options:
1. use http://jquery.malsup.com/form/ jQuery plugin, see 'ajaxSubmit' method
2. use 'serialize' method of jQuery (seee here for details)