Pass Javascript variable to PHP via ajax

Pass the data like this to the ajax call (http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/):

data: { userID : userID }

And in your PHP do this:

if(isset($_POST['userID']))
{
    $uid = $_POST['userID'];

    // Do whatever you want with the $uid
}

isset() function’s purpose is to check wheter the given variable exists, not to get its value.