Check if email exists in Wordpress through Ajax on HTML form submision

theKing
December 27, 2021
185 views
3 votes
3 Answers

In my WordPress v5.8.2, I have localized the ajax_url in the functions.php:

wp_enqueue_script('site_scripts', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/assets/js/site-scripts.js', array('jquery'), null, true);

wp_localize_script('site_scripts', 'site_ajax', array('ajax_url' => admin_url('admin-ajax.php'), 'check_nonce' => wp_create_nonce('site_ajax_nonce')));

With the below jQuery script I am processing the form to check if the email ID from the HTML form is already existed in the WordPress:

   $(document).on("submit", "#form", function(e) {
     e.preventDefault();
     $email = $(this).find('input[name=email]').val(); // email
     //ajax request, check if user exists
     $.ajax({
       type: "GET",
       dataType: 'json',
       url: site_ajax.ajax_url,
       data: {
         email: $email,
         action: 'email_exists_check',
         security: site_ajax.site_ajax_nonce
       },
       success: function(data) {
         if (data.result) {
           alert('Email exists!');
         } else {
           alert('Email does not exists!');
         }
       }
     });
   });

Below the PHP code in separate file to check email:

add_action('wp_ajax_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');

function email_exists_check() {

    // Check nonce and email is set by ajax post.
    if (isset($_POST['email']) && wp_verify_nonce('check_nonce', 'security')) {
        // Sanitize your input.
        $email = sanitize_text_field(wp_unslash($_POST['email']));
        // do check.
        if (email_exists($email)) {
            $response = true;
        } else {
            $response = false;
        }
        // send json and exit.
        wp_send_json($response);
    }
}

The above entire code is not able to alert if email exists.

How can I make this code work?

Update #1

As per @Howard E advice, I found the PHP file that contained the email_exists_check() function was not loaded.

Now that the PHP file is loaded, I am not getting the actual email_exists status. For both existed and non-existed email, alert is always Email does not existed (data.result == false).

Seems the email_exists_check function itself is not loading. I checked the log with below code, and the response in either undefined or 0:

 success: function (json) {
     console.log(json);
 }

Answers

Chosen as BEST ANSWER

It was the wp_verify_nonce causing the issue.

This is how I have modified the code and is working fine in all aspects as expected:

$(document).on("submit", "#form", function(e) {
     e.preventDefault();
     $email = $(this).find('input[name=email]').val(); // email
     //ajax request, check if user exists
     $.ajax({
       type: "GET",
       dataType: 'json',
       url: site_ajax.ajax_url,
       data: {
         email: $email,
         action: 'email_exists_check',
         check_nonce: site_ajax.check_nonce
       },
       success: function(data) {
         if (data.result) {
           alert('Email exists!');
         } else {
           alert('Email does not exists!');
         }
       }
     });
   });

Note the replacement of security with check_nonce in the data:.

Below the PHP code:

add_action('wp_ajax_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');

function email_exists_check() {
    // Check nonce and email is set by ajax post.
    if (wp_verify_nonce($_POST['check_nonce'], 'site_ajax_nonce')) {
        // Sanitize your input.
        $email = sanitize_text_field(wp_unslash($_POST['email']));
        // do check.
        if (email_exists($email)) {
            $response = true;
        } else {
            $response = false;
        }
        // send json and exit.
        wp_send_json($response);
    }
}

Note the if (wp_verify_nonce){} statement and the use of nonce.

(Edit)

Try parsing JSON response like this :

 $(document).on("submit", "#form", function(e) {
     e.preventDefault();
     $email = $(this).find('input[name=email]').val(); // email
     //ajax request, check if user exists
     $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        dataType: 'json',
        url: site_ajax.ajax_url,
        data: {
            action: 'email_exists_check',
            security: site_ajax.site_ajax_nonce
        },
        success: function(data) {
            var status = JSON.parse(data);
            if (status.result === true) {
                alert('Email exists!');
            } else {
                alert('Email doesnt exsists!');
            }
        }
    });
});

Also , do not forget die() after AJAX call in WordPress

<?php 
add_action('wp_ajax_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');

function email_exists_check() {

    $response = array();
    $email = $_GET['email'];

    // do check
    if ( email_exists( $email ) ) {
        $response['result'] = true;
    } else {
        $response['result'] = false;
    }

    // echo json
    echo json_encode( $response );
    die();
}

Enqueue Your Script and Localize add to functions.php:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_enqueue_scripts' );

function my_theme_enqueue_scripts() {
    wp_enqueue_script( 'site_scripts', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/scripts.js', array( 'jquery' ), '1.0', true );

    wp_localize_script(
        'site_scripts',
        'site_ajax',
        array(
            'ajax_url'    => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ),
            'check_nonce' => wp_create_nonce( 'site_ajax_nonce' ),
        )
    );

}

add_action('wp_ajax_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_email_exists_check', 'email_exists_check');

function email_exists_check() {
    // Check nonce and email is set by ajax post.
    if ( isset( $_POST['email'] ) && wp_verify_nonce( 'check_nonce', 'security' ) ) {
        // Sanitize your input.
        $email = sanitize_text_field( wp_unslash( $_POST['email'] ) );
        // do check.
        if ( email_exists( $email ) ) {
            $response = true;
        } else {
            $response = false;
        }
        // send json and exit.
        wp_send_json( $response );
    }
}

And your jQuery:

$( document ).on(  "submit",  "#form",  function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    $email = $( this ).find( 'input[name=email]' ).val(); // email
    // ajax request, check if user exists.
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        dataType: 'json',
        url: site_ajax.ajax_url,
        data: {
            email: $email,
            action: 'email_exists_check',
            security: site_ajax.check_nonce
            }
        })
        .done(function(data) {
            if (data.result) {
                alert( 'Email exists!' );
            } else {
                alert( 'Email doesn't exsist!' );
            }
        });
});

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Check if email exists in WordPress through Ajax on HTML form submision

Answers