ajax mime type,jQuery AJAX: dataType vs mimeType

For mimetype:

mimeType

Type: String

A mime type to override the XHR mime type.

Datatype:

The type of data that you're expecting back from the server. If none is specified, jQuery will try to infer it based on the MIME type of the response (an XML MIME type will yield XML, in 1.4 JSON will yield a JavaScript object, in 1.4 script will execute the script, and anything else will be returned as a string). The available types (and the result passed as the first argument to your success callback)

So at the end of the day the difference is setting a mimetype and datatype allows your ajax call to have an expected MIME type from the server, but datatype provides a lot more functionality.

If you want to look at the documentation it will help greatly

http://api.jquery.com/jquery.ajax/