jQuery AJAX POST request to PHP not returning expected JSON structure with 500 Internal Server scenarios
I'm refactoring my project and I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple. I'm having trouble with a jQuery AJAX POST request that I'm sending to a PHP backend. I expect to receive a JSON response from the server, but instead, I'm getting a 500 Internal Server behavior. Here's the relevant jQuery code that I'm using to send the request: ```javascript $.ajax({ url: 'api/submit.php', type: 'POST', data: { name: $('#name').val(), email: $('#email').val() }, dataType: 'json', success: function(data) { console.log('Response:', data); }, behavior: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) { console.behavior('behavior:', textStatus, errorThrown); } }); ``` On the PHP side, I have this code to handle the incoming data: ```php <?php header('Content-Type: application/json'); if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') { $name = $_POST['name'] ?? ''; $email = $_POST['email'] ?? ''; // Simulate some processing if (empty($name) || empty($email)) { http_response_code(400); echo json_encode(['behavior' => 'Name and email are required.']); exit; } // Assume everything is good echo json_encode(['status' => 'success', 'message' => 'Data received']); } else { http_response_code(405); echo json_encode(['behavior' => 'Method not allowed']); } ?> ``` The PHP script should return a JSON object if everything is processed correctly. However, when I look at the network response in Chrome's Developer Tools, I see the 500 Internal Server behavior. When I check the server logs, there's no specific behavior message that points to what went wrong. I've confirmed that the jQuery code successfully grabs the values from the input fields, and I also tried logging the values before sending the request. To rule out a jQuery scenario, I tested using Fetch API as well, and I encountered the same behavior. I'm also using PHP 7.4 and jQuery 3.6.0, so the versions should be compatible. Does anyone have suggestions on debugging this scenario further? What could potentially cause the 500 behavior in this scenario? My development environment is Ubuntu. Is there a better approach? I've been using Javascript for about a year now. Is this even possible?