How to find out if a request is an ajax request?

Question

I try to find out if a request to a PHP file is sent by ajax or not.

I googled it and read a whole a bunch of articles that suggest following method:

Answer 1

Not all browsers will send that response I usually use

if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) && strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) === 'xmlhttprequest') {//Do stuff }

and for ajax

request = $.ajax({
    url: SomePage.php,
    type: "POST",
    data: {key: value}
});
request.done(function(returnedData) {
    //do done stuff
});
request.fail(function(jqXHR, textStatus) {
    //do fail stuff
});

Note:

$HTTP_SERVER_VARS contains the same initial information, but is not a superglobal. 
(Note that $HTTP_SERVER_VARS and $_SERVER are different variables and that 
PHP handles them as such). Also note that long arrays were removed since PHP 5.4.0 so 
$HTTP_SERVER_VARS doesn't exist anymore.

So var_dump($HTTP_SERVER_VARS); to see if its contained in there, also note that the $_SERVER is filled in by the webserver

Answer 2

what you can do is provide your own defined variable, and use a command design pattern to test the outcome for instance:

$.ajax({
   url: 'http://URL/test.php',
   data: {action: "ajax_request"},
   complete: function(res) {
   console.log(res.responseText);
 }
 });

and the php test:

if (isset($_POST['action']) && !empty($_POST['action'])) {
    $action = $_POST['action'];
    switch ($action) {
         case 'ajax_request' : echo 'This is an ajax request!';
        break;

   }
}
else
  echo 'This is not an ajax request!';

try this also

 while(true)
 {
     ......
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest){
       echo 'This is an ajax request!';
       return new XMLHttpRequest();
    }
     else if(window.ActiveXObject)// for internet explorer
    {
         echo 'This is an ajax request'!;
         return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    }
    else
       echo 'This is not an ajax request!';
 }

Answer 3

There's no 100% way to detect if the request was made via ajax. Even if someone sends header with "X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest" you shouldn't rely on it.