I'm trying to get the content of a .txt file stored in one of my servers from a javascript which run on another server.

I'm using:

$.ajax({  
    url: ".txt",  
    dataType: "jsonp",  
    success: function(data) { remoteFile = data; }  
});  

But I get Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier at line 1 of the remote .txt file.

The text file is something like:

----My document----
Once upon a time, there was a fat princess...

How can I fix this problem?

I'm trying to get the content of a .txt file stored in one of my servers from a javascript which run on another server.

I'm using:

$.ajax({  
    url: "http://example./file.txt",  
    dataType: "jsonp",  
    success: function(data) { remoteFile = data; }  
});  

But I get Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier at line 1 of the remote .txt file.

The text file is something like:

----My document----
Once upon a time, there was a fat princess...

How can I fix this problem?

• javascript
• jquery
• jsonp

• your file is not json. You have to proxified it server side if it is a cross domain request – A. Wolff Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 17:10
• Try changing the dataType to "text". 'file.txt' isn't json. – Jon La Marr Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 17:11
• @JonLaMarr but then cross domain error will be fired – A. Wolff Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 17:11
• @A.Wolff exactly, I need JSONP for cross origin.. – PurpleFoxy Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 17:12
• @user2070518 but a text file is not json valid, so, proxify it server side – A. Wolff Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 17:13

3 Answers 3

My suggestion is to create a php file that uses curl to get the contents of the file:

//getFile.php
<?php
    if(isset($_GET['filename'])) {
        $fName = $_GET['filename'];

        $ch = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $fName);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

        $text = curl_exec($ch);
        echo $text;
    }
?>

And for the jQuery:

$.ajax({
    url : './getFile.php',
    data : { filename : 'http://example./file.txt'},
    success : function (r) { console.log(r) //your data }
})

It seems to me you wouldn't need to mess around as much if you used CORS instead of jsonp.

In PHP it seems to be as easy as adding something like this on the server side:

header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *");

Here is one last resource, for getting CORS working.

Since you're not returing a json object, you should change your dataType to text.

$.ajax({  
   url: "http://example./file.txt",  
   dataType: "text",  
   success: function(data) { remoteFile = data; }  
});