REST Codeigniter, jquery/ajax does not display response - rest

Question

I'm trying to get a helloworld type program working with REST CI/jquery. I've included my (really rudimentary) REST controller, view file and javascript file and am hoping that the error that has eluded me jumps out at you.
Two issues:
The response I get from the server does not get displayed - the screen gets refreshed instead (I know this is some very basic thing I've missed). If I step through the code, I see the display of the result but then, screen gets refreshed. And somehow, I cannot step into my "success" function. Why, oh why?
2.Upon success, I'd like to redirect the user to another url, say, www.google.com. Would I do this in the javascript file? or server side?
Thank you in advance for helping me!
[Added after solving the issue: My problem has nothing to do with REST or Codeigniter. A purely javascript problem]
The REST Controller:
<?php
require APPPATH.'/libraries/REST_Controller.php';
class Myex extends REST_Controller {
function contact_post(){
$result=array();
$fname=$this->post('fname');
$lname=$this->post('lname');
$result['message']="contact_post has your name";
$result['fname']=$fname."XX";
$result['lname']=$lname."YY";
$this->response($result,200);
}
}
?>
The view file:
<?php $this->load->view('includes/header')?>
<div id="input-div">
<form name="cookieform" id="login" method="post">
First Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="fname" class="text"/>
Last Name: <input type="text" name="lname" id="lname" class="text"/>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" id='submit' class="page"/>
</form>
</div>
<div id="resp-div">
response goes here
</div>
<?php $this->load->view('includes/footer')?>
The javascript file:
function postsuccess(output) {
$('#soln-div').html(output.message +'for user '+output.fname+' whose last name is '+output.lname).show('slow');
}
function post_contact() {
$('#submit').click(function(){
var output;
var fdata,res;
var furl=global_siteurl+'/myex/contact';
var fname=$('#fname').val();
var lname=$('#lname').val();
fdata='fname='+fname+'&lname='+lname;
res=$.ajax({
url: furl,
type: 'POST',
dataType: 'json',
data:fdata,
success: function(output) {
postsuccess(output);
}
});
});
}
$(document).ready(function() {
get_contact();
post_contact();
});

Answer 1

You have called your ajax function upon submission of form you can prevent refreshing of page in 2 ways:
(a) Use <input type="button" /> instead of submit call your ajax function on this button or
(b) Use return false; in your success function of ajax request.
You can redirect to any url in javascript using window.top.location = 'url-to-redirect';