If you're wanting to make use of Ajax and are running WordPress, you should look into writing a plugin and making use of the hooks and functions available to make this easier as WordPress will do a lot of heavy lifting.
I see you mentioned it can't be moved, but if it's at all possible to at least try and replicate the PHP code into a plugin (or a theme although that's less ideal and might not work properly) then it'll make things easier.
Take a look at using Ajax in plugins.
The JavaScript (jQuery) bit:
$.ajax({
data: {
action: 'my_ajax_request'
},
type: 'post',
url: SOWP_AJAX.admin_ajax,
success: function(response) {
console.warn( response );
}
});
The PHP bit (Part 1):
This ensures that the URL that you post your Ajax function to is mapped to an actual URL. In this case, the WordPress Ajax handler at admin-ajax.php.
wp_localize_script(
'sowp_js', // this is the script name that should be used to enqueue the JavaScript code above
'SOWP_AJAX',
array(
'admin_ajax' => admin_url('admin-ajax.php')
)
);
The PHP bit (Part 2):
Put this inside a plugin or theme file that is activated. The hook my_ajax_request must match the request action in the Ajax request and the function name so it's called correctly.
add_action( 'wp_ajax_my_ajax_request', 'my_ajax_request' ); // the hook that is triggered when the request is made
function my_ajax_request() {
echo 'my ajax request works'; // print something out
wp_die(); // stop script execution
}
Once you've got all of the above in place, when the Ajax request is working and runs, you should see my ajax request works printed in your browsers console. If it returns 0 then it means the request failed somewhere. If it does fail, it usually means the action hook has been registered and called so something might be spelt wrong or missing.
