ajax request does not send POST vars (or PHP script does not receive them)

I have an AJAX request that sends out the following information (via POST). All is well except in the requested PHP file the $_POST superglobal is empty.

I am providing Firebug's Headers and Post tabs:

Headers tab:

Response Headers view source
Date Sun, 23 Jan 2011 08:41:03 GMT
Server Apache
X-Powered-By PHP/5.2.13
Expires Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma no-cache
Content-Length 127
Connection close
Content-Type text/html


Request Headers view source
Host xx
User-Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13
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 115
Connection keep-alive
Referer http://xx/florin2/cautare
Content-Length 2325
Content-Type text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Cookie PHPSESSID=8367d170xx

Post tab:

Parts multipart/form-data
titluPublic PDG Archivarius
nr_versiune 
nume_developer Astonsoft
site_developer 
site_produs 
pret_vechi 
pret_actual 9.95
link_pret /nph-softsell.cgi?item=2304-3&affiliate=441937
size 20.00
zilePromo 0
startPromo 0000-00-00
date_added 2009-02-01
dataupdate 0000-00-00
rating 0
nr_download 191
id_pad 0
featured 0
license Shareware
os Windows
id_subcat_f 102
subtitlu An advanced zipping utility wich allows to recover .zip passwords and do anti-virus scanni...
description An advanced zipping utility wich allows to recover .zip passwords and do anti-virus scanning.
features 
review 
pro 
contra 
requirements 
limitations 








Source
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=gRNHZ7wzOS
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="titluPublic"

PDG Archivarius
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nr_versiune"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nume_developer"

Astonsoft
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="site_developer"
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="site_produs"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pret_vechi"


--gRNHZ7wzOS Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pret_actual"

9.95
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="link_pret"

/nph-softsell.cgi?item=2304-3&affiliate=441937
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="size"

20.00
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="zilePromo"

0
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="startPromo"

0000-00-00
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="date_added"

2009-02-01
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="dataupdate"

0000-00-00
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="rating"

0
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nr_download"

191
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="id_pad"

0
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="featured"

0
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="license"

Shareware
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="os"

Windows
--gRNHZ7wzOS Content-Disposition: form-data; name="id_subcat_f"

102
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="subtitlu"

An advanced zipping utility wich allows to recover .zip passwords and do anti-virus scanni...
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="description"

An advanced zipping utility wich allows to recover .zip pas开发者_JAVA百科swords and do anti-virus scanning.
--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="features"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="review"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pro"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="contra"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="requirements"


--gRNHZ7wzOS
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="limitations"


--gRNHZ7wzOS--

Sorry for the very long post and thanks!

UPDATE

as polarblau suggested I tried `echo file_get_contents('php://input');' which outputs the following:

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=zMgU0RnQIk

--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="titluPublic"

Feldenkrais Pelvic Clock Variations
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nr_versiune"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nume_developer"

Integrated-Learning
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="site_developer"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="site_produs"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pret_vechi"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pret_actual"

7
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="link_pret"

/nph-softsell.cgi?item=14294-5&affiliate=441937
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="size"

20.00
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="zilePromo"

0
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="startPromo"

0000-00-00
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="date_added"

2009-02-01
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="dataupdate"

0000-00-00
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="rating"

0
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="nr_download"

261
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="id_pad"

0
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="featured"

0
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="license"

Shareware
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="os"

Windows
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="id_subcat_f"

7
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="subtitlu"

Feldenkrais Lesson Pelvic Clock Variations This Feldenkrais lesson takes the theme of the ...
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="description"

Feldenkrais Lesson Pelvic Clock Variations This Feldenkrais lesson takes the theme of the Pelvic Clock in other directions. Its value lies in the slightly different demands it places on your nervous system. This is how you can develop with variation of a Feldenkrais Lesson. It is very useful to do this. It helps in developing the subtle and intricate qualities of awareness that a Feldenkrais lesson and Feldenkrais Practitioners are renowned for. Develop a greater mobility with your pelvis.
--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="features"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="review"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="pro"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="contra"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="requirements"


--zMgU0RnQIk
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="limitations"


--zMgU0RnQIk--

This is very good, but I still don't know why my $_POST is not populated. I even tried forcing $_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE'] = 'multipart/form-data'; but with no result.

---

This guy here at bradino.com seems to suggest a nice debugging method for this case:

$data = file_get_contents('php://input');

This should give you the 'raw incoming message'. If this shows, that you in fact have incoming data, he suggests to force a content type in case that has been messed–up when making the request:

if(empty($_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE'])){
     $type = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
     $_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE'] = $type;
}