> What seems odd is that jQuery throws an error before initiating the > ajax call if I set the property 'processData: false' in the > initialisation.
I think you've misunderstood the use of the processData option. That option lets the ajax function know whether it should convert the data arg to an encoded string or if that has already be done by the caller. You need your data to be processed because it is not in a format that can be sent to the server. It is a JavaScript object (which happens to contain some XML). In addition, the contentType setting is also wrong. Your content is not XML, is just happens to contain some. You should be using the default x-www-form-urlencoded content type. So your post data would ultimately look something like: method=Save&data=%3Cmenu%3E%3CmenuItem+name%3D'Item+1'+%2F%3E%3CmenuItem+name%3D'Item+2'+%2F%3E%3C%2Fmenu%3E Mike
