Jquery $.ajax fails in IE on cross domain calls

Question

I am doing a cross domain request using $.ajax. It works on Firefox and Chrome, but does not issue a call on IE 7 or 8. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with the following?

1. I have used JSON and JSONP (which I stopped using, due to some custom restrictions).
2. I am already using Allow-access-control-origin header on my site. (Without those, Chrome and Firefox were not making successful requests.)
3. I have already tried https://developer.mozilla.org/en/http_access_control

Code:

$.ajax({
    type: 'GET',
    url: "http://anotherdomain.com/Service/GetControl?id=" + zoneID,
    cache: false,
    contentType: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    async: false,
    beforeSend: function (request) {
        //alert('before send');
        //request.setRequestHeader("X-Requested-With", "XMLHttpRequest");
        //request.setRequestHeader("X-PINGOTHER", "pingpong");
    } ,
    success: function (data, status) {
        //alert("Data returned :" + data);
        //alert("Status :" + status);
        if (status == "success" && data != "")
            $("#" + div.id).append(data);
        else
            $("#" + div.id).attr("style", "display:none;");
    },
    error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert(textStatus);
        alert(errorThrown);
    }
});

I have tried various tips present on multiple sites, but no luck yet.

Answer 1

For IE8 & IE9 you need to use XDomainRequest (XDR). If you look below you'll see it's in a sort of similar formatting as $.ajax. As far as my research has got me I can't get this cross-domain working in IE6 & 7 (still looking for a work-around for this). XDR first came out in IE8 (it's in IE9 also). So basically first, I test for 6/7 and do no AJAX.

IE10+ is able to do cross-domain normally like all the other browsers (congrats Microsoft... sigh)

After that the else if tests for 'XDomainRequest in window (apparently better than browser sniffing) and does the JSON AJAX request that way, other wise the ELSE does it normally with $.ajax.

Hope this helps!! Took me forever to get this all figured out originally

Information on the XDomainRequest object

// call with your url (with parameters) 
// 2nd param is your callback function (which will be passed the json DATA back)

crossDomainAjax('http://www.somecrossdomaincall.com/?blah=123', function (data) {
    // success logic
});

function crossDomainAjax (url, successCallback) {

    // IE8 & 9 only Cross domain JSON GET request
    if ('XDomainRequest' in window && window.XDomainRequest !== null) {

        var xdr = new XDomainRequest(); // Use Microsoft XDR
        xdr.open('get', url);
        xdr.onload = function () {
            var dom  = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLDOM'),
                JSON = $.parseJSON(xdr.responseText);

            dom.async = false;

            if (JSON == null || typeof (JSON) == 'undefined') {
                JSON = $.parseJSON(data.firstChild.textContent);
            }

            successCallback(JSON); // internal function
        };

        xdr.onerror = function() {
            _result = false;  
        };

        xdr.send();
    } 

    // IE7 and lower can't do cross domain
    else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') != -1 &&
             parseInt(navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE ([\d.]+)/)[1], 10) < 8) {
       return false;
    }    

    // Do normal jQuery AJAX for everything else          
    else {
        $.ajax({
            url: url,
            cache: false,
            dataType: 'json',
            type: 'GET',
            async: false, // must be set to false
            success: function (data, success) {
                successCallback(data);
            }
        });
    }
}

Answer 2

Could you check if the problem with IE relies on not defining security zones to allow cross domain requests? See this microsoft page for an explanation.

OTOH, this page mentions that IE7 and eariler cannot do cross domain calls, but IE8 can, using a different object than XMLHttpRequest, the one JQuery uses. Could you check if XDomainRequest works?

EDIT (2013-08-22)

The second link is dead, so I'm writing here some of its information, taken from the wayback machine:

XDomainRequest Supported: IE8

Rather than implement the CORS version of XMLHttpRequest, the IE team have gone with there own propriety object, named XDomainRequest. The usage of XDomainRequest has been simplified from XMLHttpRequest, by having more events thrown (with onload perhaps being the most important).

This implementation has a few limitations attached to it. For example, cookies are not sent when using this object, which can be a headache for cookie based sessions on the server side. Also, ContentType can not be set, which poses a problem in ASP.NET and possibly other server side languages (see http://www.actionmonitor.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=5).

var xdr = new XDomainRequest();
xdr.onload = function() { alert("READY"); };
xdr.open("GET", "script.html");
xdr.send();

Answer 3

Jquery does this for you, only thing is to set $.support.cors = true; Then cross domain request works fine in all browsers for jquery users.

Answer 4

Simply install this jQuery Plugin: jQuery Cross-Domain AJAX for IE8

This 1.4kb plugin works right away in Internet Explorer 8 and 9.

Include the plugin after jQuery, and call your ajax request as normal. Nothing else required.

• Plugin GitHub repo and install instructions

Answer 5

Add extra transport to jquery for IE. ( Just add this code in your script at the end )

$.ajaxTransport("+*", function( options, originalOptions, jqXHR ) {

    if(jQuery.browser.msie && window.XDomainRequest) {

        var xdr;

        return {

            send: function( headers, completeCallback ) {

                // Use Microsoft XDR
                xdr = new XDomainRequest();

                xdr.open("get", options.url);

                xdr.onload = function() {

                    if(this.contentType.match(/\/xml/)){

                        var dom = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
                        dom.async = false;
                        dom.loadXML(this.responseText);
                        completeCallback(200, "success", [dom]);

                    }else{

                        completeCallback(200, "success", [this.responseText]);

                    }

                };

                xdr.ontimeout = function(){
                    completeCallback(408, "error", ["The request timed out."]);
                };

                xdr.onerror = function(){
                    completeCallback(404, "error", ["The requested resource could not be found."]);
                };

                xdr.send();
          },
          abort: function() {
              if(xdr)xdr.abort();
          }
        };
      }
    });

This solved my problem with Jquery $.ajax failing for Cross Domain AJAX request.

Cheers.

Answer 6

Others coming around here might do well to read http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2010/05/13/xdomainrequest-restrictions-limitations-and-workarounds.aspx which talks about limitations of XDomainRequest

Answer 7

For anyone whom might still have this problem using jQuery 2.0 (I know I do), Jay Dave wrote the best jQuery workaround but I still have a few things to add to his code namely:

• make sure you are using the same protocol for requests (HTTP -> HTTP or HTTPS -> HTTPS), Ayush Gupta gave a link to knows issues
• handle the "onprogress" events with a no-op function (this will prevent IE from abording the requests after it receives the first bits from the server.

The complete code is below:

// add ajax transport method for cross domain requests when using IE9
if('XDomainRequest' in window && window.XDomainRequest !== null) {
   $.ajaxTransport("+*", function( options, originalOptions, jqXHR ) {
       // verify if we need to do a cross domain request
       // if not return so we don't break same domain requests
       if (typeof options.crossDomain === 'undefined' || !options.crossDomain) {
           return;
       }

        var xdr;

        return {
            send: function( headers, completeCallback ) {
                // Use Microsoft XDR
                xdr = new XDomainRequest();
                xdr.open("get", options.url); // NOTE: make sure protocols are the same otherwise this will fail silently
                xdr.onload = function() {
                    if(this.contentType.match(/\/xml/)){
                        var dom = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
                        dom.async = false;
                        dom.loadXML(this.responseText);
                        completeCallback(200, "success", [dom]);
                    } else {
                        completeCallback(200, "success", [this.responseText]);
                    }
                };

                xdr.onprogress = function() {};

                xdr.ontimeout = function(){
                    completeCallback(408, "error", ["The request timed out."]);
                };

                xdr.onerror = function(){
                    completeCallback(404, "error", ["The requested resource could not be found."]);
                };

                xdr.send();
            },
            abort: function() {
                if(xdr) xdr.abort();
            }
        };
    });
}

Answer 8

Simply add "?callback=?" (or "&callback=?") to your url:

$.getJSON({
    url:myUrl + "?callback=?",
    data: myData,
    success: function(data){
        /*My function stuff*/        
    }
});

When doing the calls (with everything else set properly for cross-domain, as above) this will trigger the proper JSONP formatting.

More in-depth explanation can be found in the answer here.

Answer 9

Note, adding

$.support.cors = true;

was sufficient to force $.ajax calls to work on IE8

Answer 10

@Furqan Could you please let me know whether you tested this with HTTP POST method,

Since I am also working on the same kind of situation, but I am not able to POST the data to different domain.

But after reading this it was quite simple...only thing is you have to forget about OLD browsers. I am giving code to send with POST method from same above URL for quick reference

function createCORSRequest(method, url){
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
if ("withCredentials" in xhr){
    xhr.open(method, url, true);
} else if (typeof XDomainRequest != "undefined"){
    xhr = new XDomainRequest();
    xhr.open(method, url);
} else {
    xhr = null;
}
return xhr;
}

var request = createCORSRequest("POST", "http://www.sanshark.com/");
var content = "name=sandesh&lastname=daddi";
if (request){
    request.onload = function(){
    //do something with request.responseText
   alert(request.responseText);
};

 request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
            request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", content.length);
            request.send(content);
}

Answer 11

I have the same problem in IE, I solved it by replacing:

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

To

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

So basically upgrade your jquery version.

Answer 12

I had a similar problem in IE9 where some CORS calls were aborting, while others weren't. My app is also dependent on a promise interface, so the XDomainRequest suggestions above weren't EXACTLY what I needed, so I added a deferred into my service.get workaround for IE9. Hopefully it can be useful to someone else running across this problem. :

    get: function (url) {
        if ('XDomainRequest' in window && window.XDomainRequest !== null) {
            var deferred = $.Deferred();
            var xdr      = new XDomainRequest();

            xdr.open("get", url);

            xdr.onload = function() {
              json = xdr.responseText;
              parsed_json = $.parseJSON(json);
              deferred.resolve(parsed_json);
            }

            xdr.send();
            return deferred;
        } else {
            return $.ajax({
                url: url,
                type: 'GET',
                dataType: 'json',
                crossDomain: true
            });
        }
    }

Answer 13

Microsoft always ploughs a self-defeating (at least in IE) furrow:

http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2010/05/25/cross-domain-ajax-with-cross-origin-resource-sharing/

CORS works with XDomainRequest in IE8. But IE 8 does not support Preflighted or Credentialed Requests while Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, and Chrome all support such requests.

Answer 14

It's hard to tell due to the lack of formatting in the question, but I think I see two issues with the ajax call.

1) the application/x-www-form-urlencoded for contentType should be in quotes

2) There should be a comma separating the contentType and async parameters.