# A bit of ajax works fine locally but breaks on nginx **URL:** \ **Category:** Deployment\ **Created:** [July 24, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018 "2008-07-24T18:01:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/1 "2008-07-24T18:01:53Z")
I have an ajax call that works fine locally: #in my view \<%= link\_to\_remote “Add a New Property”, { :url =\> admin\_properties\_path, :method =\> ‘POST’ } %\> This calls the create action in my admin/properties controller. But, on our server, which uses nginx and a mongrel cluster, i get this error reported in firebug when the post request is sent: 411 Length Required # 411 Length Required * * * nginx/0.6.29 Can anyone explain what’s going on here, and how to fix it? My knowledge of server mechanics is shaky at best and i’m not sure what the ‘length’ thing is in reference to. thanks max ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/2 "2008-07-24T18:03:34Z")
Oh, and this is the generated html from the link\_to\_remote: ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/3 "2008-07-24T18:56:35Z")
Max W. wrote: > Oh, and this is the generated html from the link\_to\_remote: I actually fixed this, on my second attempt, i’d still be very interested in finding out why it broke though. Attempt 1 - (FAIL) Read that a remote post request with no parameters sometimes breaks over length, so i added a dummy parameter in there. Attempt 2 - (WIN) Changed it to a remote get request instead. It’s not really a true win though as i’m still none the wiser why the post request worked locally but broke on our server. ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/4 "2008-07-25T16:47:08Z")
Whould you please post you Nginx config? – Aníbal Rojas > **[Home - Has Many Developers](https://hasmanydevelopers.com/)** > > We are the best choice for your building design and development > **[RUBYCORNER.COM](https://www.rubycorner.com/)** > > RUBYCORNER.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries [http://anibal.rojas.com.ve](http://anibal.rojas.com.ve) On Jul 25, 11:56 am, Max W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/5 "2008-07-25T17:24:33Z")
I assume you mean this file (i didn’t write this) - here you go: thanks! #/config/nginx/rails\_nginx\_vhost.conf upstream fake\_application { server 127.0.0.1:8000; server 127.0.0.1:8001; } server { listen 80; server\_name [dev.fakedomain.com](http://dev.fakedomain.com)[assets0.fakedomain.com](http://assets0.fakedomain.com) [assets1.fakedomain.com](http://assets1.fakedomain.com) [assets2.fakedomain.com](http://assets2.fakedomain.com) [assets3.fakedomain.com](http://assets3.fakedomain.com); root /var/www/apps/fake\_application/current/public; access\_log /var/www/apps/fake\_application/shared/log/dev.fakedomain.com-access.log; error\_log /var/www/apps/fake\_application/shared/log/dev.fakedomain.com-error.log; client\_max\_body\_size 50M; ``` if (-f $document_root/system/maintenance.html){ rewrite ^(.*)$ /system/maintenance.html last; break; } location / { proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For ``` $proxy\_add\_x\_forwarded\_for; proxy\_set\_header Host $http\_host; proxy\_redirect false; ``` if (-f $request_filename/index.html) { rewrite (.*) $1/index.html break; } if (-f $request_filename.html) { rewrite (.*) $1.html break; } if (!-f $request_filename) { proxy_pass http://fake_application; break; } } error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { root html; } ``` } ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/6 "2008-07-27T02:11:14Z")
Thanks for looking at this anibal. Like i said in my follow up post, above, my first attempt at fixing the problem was to add a dummy parameter to the post request, and it still broke. I did fix it by doing a get instead though. thanks max ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/7 "2008-07-26T15:32:02Z")
The proxy configuration looks good, I first tough it could be a missing header. Googled a little, and it looks like Nginx chokes on a empty POST request, currently your alternatives looks like switching to GET or adding a dumb variable to the POST. This is interesting, will play a little with it maybe post it to Nginx list. Best regards, – Aníbal On Jul 26, 10:24 am, Max W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/8 "2008-11-16T19:28:17Z")
I’ve run into the same thing. Nginx chokes with a 411 error ("Length required), when the jQuery Ajax call leaves the data parameter blank, e.g. as in: “jQuery.post(’/your\_ajax\_method’);” The request never gets passed through to the app in this case. After some Googling, it turned out the simple fix is to provide an empty data set: “jQuery.post(’/your\_ajax\_method’, {});” This is probably a bug on the jQuery side. ---
**Author:** ![cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@cmaxvv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmaxvv)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-bit-of-ajax-works-fine-locally-but-breaks-on-nginx/144018/9 "2008-08-11T05:29:49Z")
Hi all, I’m also having the same issue. What’s weird is that the Content-Length is clearly 114 here. It’s sending a PUT request instead of POST. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance! Host www._.com User-Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070206 Firefox/3.0.1 Accept text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,/;q=0.8 Accept-Language en-us,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding gzip,deflate Accept-Charset ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,_;q=0.7 Keep-Alive 300 Connection keep-alive X-Requested-With XMLHttpRequest Content-Type application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8 Referer [http://www](http://www)._ **.com/** _/1/\*\*\* Content-Length 114 Cookie \_\*_**\_session=BAh7CjoPbGFzdF9sb2dpbnU6CVRpbWUNYR0bgAAAYL86EHJlcXVlc3RfdXJp%250AMDoMY3NyZl9pZCIlMDg2ZDNhMDc5MTVlMjU5OTc5YzNiYWU5ODMzMTJhOGUi%250ACmZsYXNoSUM6J0FjdGlvbkNvbnRyb2xsZXI6OkZsYXNoOjpGbGFzaEhhc2h7%250ABzoLbm90aWNlMDoMd2FybmluZzAGOgpAdXNlZHsHOwpUOwtUOgl1c2Vybzo1%250AQWN0aXZlUmVjb3JkOjpBc3NvY2lhdGlvbnM6OkJlbG9uZ3NUb0Fzc29jaWF0%250AaW9uCToLQG93bmVybzoLRGV0YWlsCDoMQHBlcnNvbkALOhBAYXR0cmlidXRl%250Ac3sLIhV3b3JsZF92aXNpYmlsaXR5Ig9ldmVyeXRoaW5nIhVpbmZvcm1hdGlv%250Abl90eXBlIhFFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiD3VwZGF0ZWRfb24iGDIwMDgtMDgtMDQg%250AMDU6NDk6MTUiB2lkIgYyIhNpbmZvcm1hdGlvbl9pZCIGMSIOcGVyc29uX2lk%250AIgYxOhZAYXR0cmlidXRlc19jYWNoZXsAOgxAbG9hZGVkVDoMQHRhcmdldG86%250ACVVzZXIXOiVAZGV0YWlsX21lbWJlcnNoaXBfcmVsYXRpb25zaGlwczA6KUB1%250Ac2VyX3Byb2ZpbGVfZW1haWxfYWRkcmVzc19yZXF1ZXN0czA6E0BoaXN0b3J5%250AX2l0ZW1zMDsSewoiD2FjY291bnRfaWQiBjEiFW9wdGlvbmFsX2RhdGVfaWQw%250AIgl0eXBlIglVc2VyIgdpZCIGMSIMbmFtZV9pZCIGMToNQGFjY291bnQwOihA%250AdXNlcl9wcm9maWxlX2VtYWlsX2FkZHJlc3NfcmVxdWVzdDA6DUBkZXRhaWxz%250AMDojQGRldGFpbF9lbWFpbF9hZGRyZXNzX3JlcXVlc3RzMDoQQGJpcnRoX2Rh%250AdGUwOhRAZ3JvdXBzX21hbmFnZWQwOhxAZW1haWxfYWRkcmVzc19yZXF1ZXN0%250AczA6HUBtYW5hZ2VyX3N0YXR1c19yZXF1ZXN0czA7E3sAOgxAZ3JvdXBzMDor%250AQGRlbGV0ZV9wcmltYXJ5X2VtYWlsX2FkZHJlc3NfcmVxdWVzdHMwOhFAbWVt%250AYmVyc2hpcHMwOiFAZ3JvdXBfbWFuYWdlcl9yZWxhdGlvbnNoaXBzMDoKQG5h%250AbWUwOhBAcmVmbGVjdGlvbm86NEFjdGl2ZVJlY29yZDo6UmVmbGVjdGlvbjo6%250AQXNzb2NpYXRpb25SZWZsZWN0aW9uDToYQHRocm91Z2hfcmVmbGVjdGlvbkY6%250AE0BhY3RpdmVfcmVjb3JkYwtEZXRhaWw6EEBjbGFzc19uYW1lIgtQZXJzb246%250AC0BrbGFzc2MLUGVyc29uOgtAbWFjcm86D2JlbG9uZ3NfdG86DUBvcHRpb25z%250AewA7JjoLcGVyc29uOhZAcHJpbWFyeV9rZXlfbmFtZSIOcGVyc29uX2lk–020f3f75cdb3d084d5b4c2dccef5c941eff0b6c0; email\_address=**_%[40hotmail.com](http://40hotmail.com); connection=4e210ec5836a6b4fbb0afe35c18eacb9 Max W. wrote: > Thanks for looking at this anibal. > > Like i said in my follow up post, above, my first attempt at fixing the > problem was to add a dummy parameter to the post request, and it still > broke. I did fix it by doing a get instead though. > > thanks > max