Ajax调用php mail（）脚本成功失败，没有返回json数据

I have a problem with an ajax call to php mail() script failing on success, no json data is returned. It's basically just posting a form to a php script, validating & returning some json.

If I encounter either a validation error the json is returned correctly & my jquery executes as expected.

If NO errors are encountered, PHP processes and sends mail correctly but no data is returned to my jquery script.

Here is my code:

    <?php

require "gump.class.php";

$gump = new GUMP();

$mailto = 'me@mydomain.com';

$subject = 'A new form inquiry has been submitted.';

$output = array(
    'status' => 'success',
    'msg' => 'Mail processed successfully',
    'success' => 'success',
);



function render_email($input) {
    //error_log("render_email " . print_r($input,TRUE), 0);
    ob_start();
    include "email-template.phtml";
    return ob_get_contents();
}

$input = $gump->sanitize($_POST);

$gump->validation_rules(array(
    'first_name'    => 'required',
    'last_name'    => 'required',
    'email'    => 'required',
    //'country'       => 'required|valid_email',
    //'gender'      => 'required|exact_len,1',
    //'company' => 'required|valid_cc|max_len,2|min_len,1',
    //'bio'       => 'required'
));

$gump->filter_rules(array(
    'first_name'      => 'trim|sanitize_string',
    'last_name'       => 'trim|sanitize_string',
    'email'       => 'trim|sanitize_string',

));

$validated = $gump->run($_POST);

if($validated === false){
    error_log("GUMP: validation Error: " . print_r($gump->get_readable_errors(true),TRUE));
    $output = array(
            'status' => 'error',
            'msg' => '<strong>Validation Error: </strong>' . $gump->get_readable_errors(true),
            'error' => 'error',
        );
}else{
    error_log("GUMP: Successful Validation, processing mail",0);
    // ghead & mail the form
    $to = $mailto ;
    $subject = $subject;
    $body = render_email($input);
    $headers = "From: Metz Tea <sales@mydomain.com>" . "
";
    $headers .= "Reply-To: sales@mydomain.com
";
    $headers .= "Return-Path: info@example.com
";
    $headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP
";
    $headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "
";
    $headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=UTF-8" . "
";
    if(!mail($to,$subject,$body,$headers)){
        $output = array(
            'status' => 'error',
            'msg' => 'The system failed to send mail.',
            'error' => 'error',
        );
    };
    error_log("mail complete",0);
}

header("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");

header('Content-type: application/json');

$output = json_encode($output);

echo $output;

return;

and the jquery:

$('form').submit(function(event){
        event.preventDefault();
    })


    $(document).on("forminvalid.zf.abide", function(event,frm) {

        var modal = $('form').closest('.reveal').attr('id');
        $(".success").hide();
        $(".alert").show();
        console.log("Form id "+event.target.id+" is invalid");
        formToTop(modal);

      }).on("formvalid.zf.abide", function(event,frm) {

        console.log("Form id "+event.target.id+" is VALID");
        var modal = $('form').closest('.reveal').attr('id');
        var data = frm.serializeArray();

        $.ajax({
            type        : 'POST', 
            url         : 'process.php', 
            data        : data, 
            dataType    : 'json', 
            encode          : true
        }).done(function(data) {
            console.log('completed successfully '+ data);
            if (data.status != 'success') {
                console.log('AJAX returned error = ' + data.msg);
                $('.callout p').html(data.msg);
                $('.alert').show();
                formToTop(modal);
            } else {
                console.log( 'AJAX returned success = ' + data.status);
                $('.callout p').html(data.msg);
                $('#orderform').find("input[type=text], textarea, select").val("");
                $('.alert').hide();
                $('.success').show();
                $('form').slideUp('500');
                formToTop(modal);
            }
        }).fail(function(data) {
            //error
        });
        event.preventDefault();
    });

It must be the mail() function somehow, it does send mail on success, but no data is sent back to the ajax script.

what is my error here?

The problem is here:

function render_email($input) {
    //error_log("render_email " . print_r($input,TRUE), 0);
    ob_start();
    include "email-template.phtml";
    return ob_get_contents();
}

You've got side-effects both leaving the contents of your rendered template in the buffer, and leaving buffering enabled. You'll want to change this to:

function render_email($input) {
    //error_log("render_email " . print_r($input,TRUE), 0);
    ob_start();
    include "email-template.phtml";
    $ret = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();
    return $ret;
}