jquery & ajax sending data to php

Question

In my jquery script I have;

jQuery.ajax(
        ajaxurl, {
        action: 'lu_ajax',
        status: 'enabled'
        },
        success: function (a) {
        alert(a)
        }

In my file.php i have;

add_action('wp_ajax_lu_ajax', 'lu_ajax');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_lu_ajax', 'lu_ajax'); //for logged users
function lu_ajax() {

    if($_GET['status'] != '') {
            $value = $_GET['status'];
            echo $value;
            setcookie("status", $value, time()+3600, "/");
    }
}

I am including the file.php in the main plugin such as require_once('inc/file.php');

However, no cookie is being set or any value being echoed, can anyone tell me what the issue is please. initially the issue that I had is that I was calling the file directly and caused wp functions to be undefined so i was recommended to use ajaxurl and then the action to perform and the variables i wanted to send over to php, but nothing is happening now.

ps. both jquery and php are in the same file.php i do not have a separate js file as it doesnt fit my purpose.

update new issue As I am making the ajax call from jquery i am firing them up based on conditionals, the following is a sample;

var stat= true;
                jQuery.ajax({
                    type: 'POST',
                    url: ajaxurl,
                    data: {action: 'lu_ajax', status: 'enabled'},
                    success: function (a) {
                        alert(a)
                    }
                });
        } else {
            var stat= false;
            jQuery.ajax({
                    type: 'POST',
                    url: ajaxurl,
                    data: {action: 'lu_ajax', status: 'false'},
                    success: function (b) {
                        alert(b)
                    }
                });
            }

however the cookie is always set to enabled, meaning that the first call is only being made, the problem is not in the condition as i test it by setting it to false manually.

Answer 1

First of all, your js is wrong, you are mixing the syntax of jQuery.post() and of jQuery.ajax()

You should use

jQuery.ajax({
  type: "POST",
  url: ajaxurl,
  data: { action: "lu_ajax", status: "enabled" },
  success: function( data ) {
    alert(data);
  }
});

or

jQuery.post(
  ajaxurl,
  { action: "lu_ajax", status: "enabled" },
  function(data) {
    alert(data);
  }
);

After that the ajaxurl js variable is available only in admin pages, not in frontend.

So the code above will work only in admin pages, but once you use add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_lu_ajax', 'lu_ajax'); I think you want to use ajax in frontend, in this case you have to pass the ajax url to the script via wp_localize_script.

So if the js script in which reside the js code above is names 'my_ajax.js' and resides in the 'js' subfolder of your plugin, do something like this

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function() {
  wp_enqueue_script('my-ajax', plugins_url('js/my_ajax.js', __FILE__) );
  wp_localize_script(
    'my-ajax',
    'myAjaxData',
     array( 'ajaxurl' => admin_url('admin-ajax.php') )
  );
});

Now the in the js code above replace ajaxurl with myAjaxData.ajaxurl

Answer 2

ajaxurl is set only in admin. If this is a frontend ajax (looks like it due to nopriv), you have to localize the script on enqueueing:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_enqueue' );
function my_enqueue($hook) {

    wp_enqueue_script( 'ajax-script', plugins_url( '/js/my_query.js', __FILE__ ), array('jquery'));

    // in javascript, object properties are accessed as ajax_object.ajax_url, ajax_object.we_value
    wp_localize_script( 'ajax-script', 'ajax_object',
            array( 'ajax_url' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ), 'we_value' => 1234 ) );
}

In the JS file, you can reach the ajax_url as a variable of ajax_object:

jQuery.ajax(
        ajax_object.ajax_url, {
        action: 'lu_ajax',
        status: 'enabled'
        },
        success: function (a) {
        alert(a)
        }

See http://codex.wordpress.org/AJAX_in_Plugins