Submit page but dont refresh - php

Question

I'm working on a footer generator.
Which looks like this:
This "preview" button has 2 functions function 1 is posting the values that the user entered in the black box like this :
and the second function is to show me a button(which is hidden by default with css) called "button-form-control-generate" with jquery like this:
$("button.form-control").click(function(event){
$("button.form-control-generate").show();
});
Now here comes my problem:
If i click on preview it refreshes the page.. so if i click on preview it shows the hidden button for like 1 second then it refreshes the page and the button goes back to hidden. So i tried removing the type="submit" but if i do that it wont post the entered data like it did in image 2 it will show the hidden button though, but because the submit type is gone it wont post the entered data on the black box.
Here is my code:
<form class ="form" method="post">
<h3>Select your trademark</h3>
<select class="form-control" name="trademark" action="">
<option></option>
<option>©</option>
<option>™</option>
<option>®</option>
</select>
<h3>Your company name</h3>
<input class="form-control" type="text" name="companyName" placeholder="Your company name" />
<br/>
<br/>
<button class="form-control" type= "submit" name="submit">
Preview
</button>
<br/>
<button class="form-control-generate"name= "submit">
Generate
</button>
</form>
<!-- script for the preview image -->
<div id = "output">
<?php
function footerPreview ()
{
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
$trademark = $_POST["trademark"];
$company = $_POST["companyName"];
$date = date("Y");
echo "<div id='footer_date'>$trademark $date $company </div>";
}
footerPreview();
?>
The jquery:
$("button.form-control").click(function(event){
$("button.form-control-generate").show();
});
Already tried prevent default but if i do this the users entered data doesnt show in the preview box. Looks like preventdefault stops this bit from working:
<!-- script for the preview image -->
<div id = "output">
<?php
function footerPreview ()
{
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
$trademark = $_POST["trademark"];
$company = $_POST["companyName"];
$date = date("Y");
echo "<div id='footer_date'>$trademark $date $company </div>";
}
footerPreview();
?>
I heard this is possible with ajax, but i have no idea how in this case i already tried to look on the internet..

Answer 1

if you have a type="submit" inside a form, it will submit the form by default. Try to use <input type="button" instead. Then you can use ajax on the button action, that will run without refreshing the page.
Here's an example of how to use ajax:
function sendAjax() {
var root = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com';
$.ajax({
url: root + '/posts/1',
method: 'GET'
}).then(function(data) {
$(".result").html(JSON.stringify(data))
});
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<form>
<input type="button" onclick="sendAjax()" value="callAjax" />
<div class="result"></div>
</form>

Answer 2

Add
return false;
to your jQuery-function at the end. With this you can avoid the submit.
Then you need to add an ajax-function, which sends the data from your form to the php-script you already use.
This is just an example:
$.ajax({
url: "YOUR-PHP-SCRIPT"
}).done(function (content) {
// ADD HERE YOUR LOGIC FOR THE RESPONSE
}).fail(function (jqXHR, textStatus) {
alert('failed: ' + textStatus);
});

Answer 3

So you have to do $.ajax post request to the php. Something like this:
<script>
$('.form-control').click(function() {
$.post(url, {data}, function(result) {
footerPreview();
}, 'json');
});
</script>
So footerPreview will be called when your php returns result.

Answer 4

//add in javascript
function isPostBack()
{
return document.referrer.indexOf(document.location.href) > -1;
}
if (isPostBack()){
$("button.form-control-generate").show();
}

Answer 5

you can create an index.php:
<form class ="form" method="post">
<h3>Select your trademark</h3>
<select class="form-control" name="trademark" id="tm">
<option val=""></option>
<option val="©">©</option>
<option val="™">™</option>
<option val="®">®</option>
</select>
<h3>Your company name</h3>
<input class="form-control" type="text" name="companyName" id="cn" placeholder="Your company name" />
<br/>
<br/>
<button class="form-control" type= "submit" name="submit">
Preview
</button>
<br/>
<button class="form-control-generate" name= "submit" id="generate">
Generate
</button>
</form>
<div class="output" id="output">
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('#generate').on('click', function(e){
e.preventDefault();
var companyname = $('#cn').val();
var trademark = $('#tm').val();
$.ajax({
url: 'process.php',
type: 'post'.
data: {'company':companyname,'trademark':trademark},
dataType: 'JSON',
success: function(data){
$('#output').append("<div id='footer_date'>"+data.trademark + " " + data.date + " " + data.company + " </div>");
},
error: function(){
alert('Error During AJAX');
}
});
})
</script>
and the process.php:
<?php
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
$trademark = $_POST["trademark"];
$company = $_POST["company"];
$date = date("Y");
$array = array(
'trademark' => $trademark,
'company' => $company,
'date' => $date
);
echo json_encode($array);
?>
Be sure that the index.php and the process.php will be under the same folder.. ex.public_html/index.php and public_html/process.php