parse html from jquery ajax return

[mrbean]

Hello coders,

I have an jquery form validator, client-side but also an php serverside validator.

After the form is validated client-side, it would send an ajax to my submit.php page.

If the form isn't validated server-side it would return a div with class 'error'.

Here's the code:
Ajax:

var datastring = 'username='+ username + '&password=' + password 
+ '&repeatpassword=' + repeatpassword + '&email=' + email + '&formtype=' + formtype;

$.ajax({
	type: "POST",
	url: "submit.php",
	data: datastring,
	success: function(data) { 
		if($(data).find(".error").length > 0){
			alert("Error! The following errror occurs:");
			$(data).find(".error").each(function(){
				$('.error_form').text($(this).text());
			});
		}else{
			$("form.formulier").hide();
			alert("succesvol signup");
			//game.start(5,5);
		}
		alert(data);
	}
});

PHP return

<div class='error'>Username does not match our conditions</div>

I want to put the text of class error, in an div with class called 'error_form'

Response:
alertbox with text: "succesvol signup"
alertbox with text: "<div class='error'>Username does not match our conditions</div>"
and div 'error_form' contained nothing

help!

[AndrewGSW]

The response is returned as a string, rather than an HTML element. Try

var returnAsHTML = $(data);
// then..
if (returnAsHTML).find(...) // etc..
// do you need to use find..?
if ($(".error", returnAsHTML).length) {

Do you need to use each()? I suspect you just need to use first() to retrieve the first (and only) error message.

But if you return just a string rather than '<div>...etc.' then you can just use the string as is rather than extracting it.

I would consider returning either 'true' or 'Some error message' and check against the text 'true'.