ajax jquery url specification

Question

Hey I'm totally confused with the way the ajax uri works. Please look at the code below:

<script>
function clickHandler(){
    $.ajax({
        **url : "http://localhost:8080/csp/ajaxchangerole.html?user=" + document.getElementById('userid').value,**
        dataType: 'text',
        success : function (data) {
        $("#roleval").html(data);
        }
        });
}

It also works even if I change the url to this fashion

<script>
function clickHandler(){
    $.ajax({
        **url : "ajaxchangerole.html?user=" + document.getElementById('userid').value,**
        dataType: 'text',
        success : function (data) {
        $("#roleval").html(data);
        }
        });
}

But if I change the url to either of the two urls mentioned below, it doesn't even call the controller. I'm not sure why. Can someone explain what I need to call the controller at the below specified urls?

url : "admin/ajaxchangerole.html?user=" + document.getElementById('userid').value, OR url : "http://localhost:8080/csp/admin/ajaxchangerole.html?user=" + document.getElementById('userid').value,

Here is my snippet from my xml file that has the mappings for the above urls:

<bean name="/admin/changerole.html" class="csp.spring.controller.admin.ChangeRoleFormController" >
    <property name="customerDao"     ref="customerDao" />
    <property name="commandName"     value="customer" />
    <property name="commandClass"    value="csp.model.Customer" />
    <property name="formView"        value="admin/changerole" />
    <property name="successView"     value="home" />
</bean>

<bean name="/admin/ajaxchangerole.html" 
    class="csp.spring.controller.admin.ChangeRoleAjaxController">
    <property name="customerDao"   ref="customerDao" />
    <property name="authorityDao"  ref="authorityDao" />
</bean>

I can't understand why I have to remove "/admin" from the above two mappings to get this ajax part working. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Regards, Serotonin Chase

Fyi, my controllers:

1.ChangeRoleAjaxController

package csp.spring.controller;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.Controller;

import csp.model.Authority;
import csp.model.Customer;
import csp.model.dao.AuthorityDao;
import csp.model.dao.CustomerDao;
import csp.model.dao.ParkingLotDao;



public class ChangeRoleAjaxController implements Controller {
    CustomerDao     customerDao;
    AuthorityDao    authorityDao;
    public CustomerDao getCustomerDao() {
        return customerDao;
    }
    public void setCustomerDao(CustomerDao customerDao) {
        this.customerDao = customerDao;
    }
    public AuthorityDao getAuthorityDao() {
        return authorityDao;
    }
    public void setAuthorityDao(AuthorityDao authorityDao) {
        this.authorityDao = authorityDao;
    }
    public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {     

        System.out.println("Username: " + request.getParameter("user"));
        Customer customer = customerDao.getUserByName(request.getParameter("user"));
        Authority a = customer.getAuthority();
        if(a.getAuthority().equals("ROLE_USER"))
            a.setAuthority("ROLE_OWNER");
        else if(a.getAuthority().equals("ROLE_OWNER"))
            a.setAuthority("ROLE_USER");
        authorityDao.add(a);
        customer.setAuthority(a);
        customerDao.add(customer);
        return new ModelAndView("/admin/ajax_changerole").addObject("role", a.getAuthority());
    }

}

Next controller: 2. ChangeRoleFormController

package csp.spring.controller;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.security.providers.encoding.PasswordEncoder;
import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.BindException;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleFormController;

import csp.spring.security.SecurityUtils;
import csp.model.Authority;
import csp.model.Customer;
import csp.model.dao.AuthorityDao;
import csp.model.dao.CustomerDao;

public class ChangeRoleFormController extends SimpleFormController {

    CustomerDao     customerDao;
    public CustomerDao getCustomerDao() {
        return customerDao;
    }

    public void setCustomerDao(CustomerDao customerDao) {
        this.customerDao = customerDao;
    }
    /*
    protected Object formBackingObject( HttpServletRequest request )
    throws Exception
    {
        return new Customer();
    }*/
    protected ModelAndView onSubmit( HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response, Object command, BindException errors ) throws Exception 
        {
            Customer customer = customerDao.getUserByName(request.getParameter("user"));
            String name = customer.getFirstName() + " " + customer.getLastName();
            String username = customer.getUserName();
            String role = customer.getAuthority().getAuthority();
            return new ModelAndView("/changerole").addObject("name", name)
            .addObject("username", username).addObject("role", role).addObject("flag", true);
        }

}

My two jsp files: 1. changerole.jsp

Next jsp file: 2. ajax_changerole.jsp

Answer 1

Place this somewhere at the top of your JSP after you import JSTL taglibs (assuming that you are using JSTL):

<c:set var="contextPath" value="${pageContext.request.contextPath}"/>

Then give this value to your url:

url : "${contextPath}/admin/ajaxchangerole.html?user=" + document.getElementById('userid').value

As a side note, its a good idea to use jQuery selectors rather than document.getElementById(). They are easy to work with, more readable and more cross-browser compatible.