$.ajax({ type: "POST", url: $(this).attr('action'), datatype: "json", data: $(this).serialize(), success: function(result){ //pass JSON object, form name, name of success div // to external .js library used by all forms parse_results(result,'menu','msgs'); } }); ... function parse_results(result,form, msgdiv) { var success = ''; var msgArray = result[0].messages; $.each(msgArray, function(i,o) { for (var p in o) { var val = o[p]; if (p == 'success') { success += '

' + val + '

'; } else { $($("label[for='"+p+"']")).addClass('error').append(' '+val); } } });