How Can I Make an Ajax Call Without jQuery?

With "vanilla" (plain) JavaScript:

function loadXMLDoc() {
    var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

    xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (xmlhttp.readyState == XMLHttpRequest.DONE) { // XMLHttpRequest.DONE == 4
           if (xmlhttp.status == 200) {
               document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;
           }
           else if (xmlhttp.status == 400) {
              alert('There was an error 400');
           }
           else {
               alert('something else other than 200 was returned');
           }
        }
    };

    xmlhttp.open("GET", "ajax_info.txt", true);
    xmlhttp.send();
}

With jQuery:

$.ajax({
    url: "test.html",
    context: document.body,
    success: function() {
      $(this).addClass("done");
    }
});

Using the following snippet you can do similar things pretty easily, like this:

ajax.get('/test.php', {foo: 'bar'}, function() {});

Here is the snippet:

var ajax = {};
ajax.x = function () {
    if (typeof XMLHttpRequest !== 'undefined') {
        return new XMLHttpRequest();
    }
    var versions = [
        "MSXML2.XmlHttp.6.0",
        "MSXML2.XmlHttp.5.0",
        "MSXML2.XmlHttp.4.0",
        "MSXML2.XmlHttp.3.0",
        "MSXML2.XmlHttp.2.0",
        "Microsoft.XmlHttp"
    ];

    var xhr;
    for (var i = 0; i < versions.length; i++) {
        try {
            xhr = new ActiveXObject(versions[i]);
            break;
        } catch (e) {
        }
    }
    return xhr;
};

ajax.send = function (url, callback, method, data, async) {
    if (async === undefined) {
        async = true;
    }
    var x = ajax.x();
    x.open(method, url, async);
    x.onreadystatechange = function () {
        if (x.readyState == 4) {
            callback(x.responseText)
        }
    };
    if (method == 'POST') {
        x.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
    }
    x.send(data)
};

ajax.get = function (url, data, callback, async) {
    var query = [];
    for (var key in data) {
        query.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(data[key]));
    }
    ajax.send(url + (query.length ? '?' + query.join('&') : ''), callback, 'GET', null, async)
};

ajax.post = function (url, data, callback, async) {
    var query = [];
    for (var key in data) {
        query.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(data[key]));
    }
    ajax.send(url, callback, 'POST', query.join('&'), async)
};

There is now a nicer Fetch API available natively in modern browsers. The fetch() method allows you to make web requests. For example, to request some JSON from /get-data:

let options = {
  method: 'GET',      
  headers: {}
};

fetch('/get-data', options)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(body => {
  // Do something with body
});

See MDN Web Docs: Using the Fetch API for more details.

You can use the following function:

function callAjax(url, callback){
    var xmlhttp;
    // compatible with IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function(){
        if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200){
            callback(xmlhttp.responseText);
        }
    }
    xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
    xmlhttp.send();
}

You can try similar solutions online on these links:

xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
        alert(this.responseText);
    }
};
xhttp.open("GET", "ajax_info.txt", true);
xhttp.send();

How about this version in plain ES6/ES2015?

function get(url) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const req = new XMLHttpRequest();
    req.open('GET', url);
    req.onload = () => req.status === 200 ? resolve(req.response) : reject(Error(req.statusText));
    req.onerror = (e) => reject(Error(`Network Error: ${e}`));
    req.send();
  });
}

The function returns a promise. Here is an example on how to use the function and handle the promise it returns:

get('foo.txt')
.then((data) => {
  // Do stuff with data, if foo.txt was successfully loaded.
})
.catch((err) => {
  // Do stuff on error...
});

If you need to load a json file you can use JSON.parse() to convert the loaded data into an JS Object.

You can also integrate req.responseType='json' into the function but unfortunately there is no IE support for it, so I would stick with JSON.parse().

Use XMLHttpRequest.

Simple GET request

httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest()
httpRequest.open('GET', ')
httpRequest.send()

Simple POST request

httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest()
httpRequest.open('POST', ')
httpRequest.send('some data')

We can specify that the request should be asynchronous(true), the default, or synchronous(false) with an optional third argument.

// Make a synchronous GET request
httpRequest.open('GET', ' false)

We can set headers before calling httpRequest.send()

httpRequest.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');

We can handle the response by setting httpRequest.onreadystatechange to a function before calling httpRequest.send()

httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function(){
  // Process the server response here.
  if (httpRequest.readyState === XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
    if (httpRequest.status === 200) {
      alert(httpRequest.responseText);
    } else {
      alert('There was a problem with the request.');
    }
  }
}

You can get the correct object according to the browser with

function getXmlDoc() {
  var xmlDoc;

  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    xmlDoc = new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
  else {
    // code for IE6, IE5
    xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }

  return xmlDoc;
}

With the correct object, a GET might can be abstracted to:

function myGet(url, callback) {
  var xmlDoc = getXmlDoc();

  xmlDoc.open('GET', url, true);

  xmlDoc.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (xmlDoc.readyState === 4 && xmlDoc.status === 200) {
      callback(xmlDoc);
    }
  }

  xmlDoc.send();
}

And a POST to:

function myPost(url, data, callback) {
  var xmlDoc = getXmlDoc();

  xmlDoc.open('POST', url, true);
  xmlDoc.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

  xmlDoc.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (xmlDoc.readyState === 4 && xmlDoc.status === 200) {
      callback(xmlDoc);
    }
  }

  xmlDoc.send(data);
}

I was looking for a way to include promises with ajax and exclude jQuery. There's an article on HTML5 Rocks that talks about ES6 promises. (You could polyfill with a promise library like Q) You can use the code snippet that I copied from the article.

function get(url) {
  // Return a new promise.
  return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
    // Do the usual XHR stuff
    var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
    req.open('GET', url);

    req.onload = function() {
      // This is called even on 404 etc
      // so check the status
      if (req.status == 200) {
        // Resolve the promise with the response text
        resolve(req.response);
      }
      else {
        // Otherwise reject with the status text
        // which will hopefully be a meaningful error
        reject(Error(req.statusText));
      }
    };

    // Handle network errors
    req.onerror = function() {
      reject(Error("Network Error"));
    };

    // Make the request
    req.send();
  });
}

Note: I also wrote an article about this.

A small combination from a couple of the examples below and created this simple piece:

function ajax(url, method, data, async)
{
    method = typeof method !== 'undefined' ? method : 'GET';
    async = typeof async !== 'undefined' ? async : false;

    if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
    {
        var xhReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
    }
    else
    {
        var xhReq = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    }


    if (method == 'POST')
    {
        xhReq.open(method, url, async);
        xhReq.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
        xhReq.setRequestHeader("X-Requested-With", "XMLHttpRequest");
        xhReq.send(data);
    }
    else
    {
        if(typeof data !== 'undefined' && data !== null)
        {
            url = url+'?'+data;
        }
        xhReq.open(method, url, async);
        xhReq.setRequestHeader("X-Requested-With", "XMLHttpRequest");
        xhReq.send(null);
    }
    //var serverResponse = xhReq.responseText;
    //alert(serverResponse);
}

// Example usage below (using a string query):

ajax(');
ajax(' 'POST', 'q=test');

OR if your parameters are object(s) - minor additional code adjustment:

var parameters = {
    q: 'test'
}

var query = [];
for (var key in parameters)
{
    query.push(encodeURIComponent(key) + '=' + encodeURIComponent(parameters[key]));
}

ajax(' 'POST', query.join('&'));

Both should be fully browser + version compatible.

If you don't want to include JQuery, I'd try out some lightweight AJAX libraries.

My favorite is reqwest. It's only 3.4kb and very well built out:

Here's a sample GET request with reqwest:

reqwest({
    url: url,
    method: 'GET',
    type: 'json',
    success: onSuccess
});

Now if you want something even more lightweight, I'd try microAjax at a mere 0.4kb:

This is all the code right here:

function microAjax(B,A){this.bindFunction=function(E,D){return function(){return E.apply(D,[D])}};this.stateChange=function(D){if(this.request.readyState==4){this.callbackFunction(this.request.responseText)}};this.getRequest=function(){if(window.ActiveXObject){return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")}else{if(window.XMLHttpRequest){return new XMLHttpRequest()}}return false};this.postBody=(arguments[2]||"");this.callbackFunction=A;this.url=B;this.request=this.getRequest();if(this.request){var C=this.request;C.onreadystatechange=this.bindFunction(this.stateChange,this);if(this.postBody!==""){C.open("POST",B,true);C.setRequestHeader("X-Requested-With","XMLHttpRequest");C.setRequestHeader("Content-type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");C.setRequestHeader("Connection","close")}else{C.open("GET",B,true)}C.send(this.postBody)}};

And here's a sample call:

microAjax(url, onSuccess);

XMLHttpRequest()

You can use the XMLHttpRequest() constructor to create a new XMLHttpRequest (XHR) object which will allow you to interact with a server using standard HTTP request methods (such as GET and POST):

const data = JSON.stringify({
  example_1: 123,
  example_2: 'Hello, world!',
});

const request = new XMLHttpRequest();

request.addEventListener('load', function () {
  if (this.readyState === 4 && this.status === 200) {
    console.log(this.responseText);
  }
});

request.open('POST', 'example.php', true);
request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8');
request.send(data);