Controller must return a response in Symfony2 - ajax

Question

I have an ajax call in my code. What I want to achieve with the call works fine. I want to delete some records from the database which is actually deleted when the method is called via ajax but as in symfony method it must return a response and thats why when the method is executed its gives me the error
My Ajax call is
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
data: data,
url:"{{ path('v2_pm_patents_trashpatents') }}",
cache: false,
success: function(){
document.location.reload(true);
}
});
And the method that is executed is
public function trashpatentAction(Request $request){
if ($request->isXmlHttpRequest()) {
$id = $request->get("pid");
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();
$patent_group = $em->getRepository('MunichInnovationGroupPatentBundle:PmPatentgroups')->find($id);
if($patent_group){
$patentgroup_id = $patent_group->getId();
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();
$patents = $em->getRepository('MunichInnovationGroupPatentBundle:SvPatents')
->findBy(array('patentgroup' => $patentgroup_id));
if($patents){
foreach($patents as $patent){
if($patent->getIs_deleted()==false){
$patent->setIs_deleted(true);
$em->flush();
}
}
}
$patent_group->setIs_deleted(true);
$em->flush();
}
else{
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();
$patent = $em->getRepository('MunichInnovationGroupPatentBundle:SvPatents')->find($id);
if ($patent) {
$patent->setIs_deleted(1);
$em->flush();
}
}
return true;
}
}
How can I successfully return from this method ?
Any ideas? Thanks

Answer 1

Replace return true; with return new Response();. Also don't forget to write use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response; at the top.

Answer 2

You can also pass error code 200 and the content type like below.
return new Response('Its coming from here .', 200, array('Content-Type' => 'text/html'));
Here is the full example of the controller
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class WelcomeController extends Controller
{
public function indexAction()
{
return new Response('Its coming from here .', 200, array('Content-Type' => 'text/html'));
}
}