Display php output via ajax - php

Question

I have a php script to check if a domain is available. It echos the result and there are 4 possible outputs;
Is not available
Is available
Is registered, but can be transferred
Is not available for transfer
I am trying to use ajax to send the domain and the tld to the script How do I echo the output of the script in my html?
From what I understand is that is is possible to display a message if the php gives a result, but not to extract the result and display that under my html form.
So basically this is what happens at the moment:
form -> $domain $tld -> AJAX -> GET -> domaincheck.php -> $dom = $_GET['domain'];
$tld = $_GET['tld']; -> $domain = $dom . $tld; -> TransIP API -> $result
$result gets set by this piece of php
try
{
$availability = Transip_DomainService::checkAvailability($domain);
switch($availability)
{
//check availability
case Transip_DomainService::AVAILABILITY_INYOURACCOUNT:
$result = htmlspecialchars($domain)
. ' is not available.';
break;
case Transip_DomainService::AVAILABILITY_UNAVAILABLE:
$result = htmlspecialchars($domain)
. ' is not available for transfer.';
break;
case Transip_DomainService::AVAILABILITY_FREE:
$result = htmlspecialchars($domain)
. ' is available for registration.';
break;
case Transip_DomainService::AVAILABILITY_NOTFREE:
$result = htmlspecialchars($domain)
. ' is registered. If you are the owner,
you could transfer it.';
break;
}
}
catch(SoapFault $e)
{
//error
$result = 'An error occurred: ' . htmlspecialchars($e->getMessage());
}
}
else
{
$domain = '';
$result = '';
}
I am absolutely no programming genius, more an UI designer on the loose. So any help is appreciated :)

Answer 1

It is totally possible, and happens all over the web these days.
Basically what you need to do, is have the PHP script output that $result that you want, and then have the AJAX take it and place it into the html dom. Here's an example to get you started:
At the end of the PHP script, add something like:
echo json_encode(['result'=>$result]);
die();
This takes your $result variable and puts it in an array with 'result' as its index. You then encode it in JSON format, print it, and kill the script because it's finished. (note: there are other ways to do it than json encoding, but I find it the simplest and most scalable solution).
Then, have some javascript like this:
$.ajax({
url: "your_url/with_the_php_script.php",
type: "GET",
dataType: "json",
data: { domain: "yummypizza.com", tld: "the_moon" },
success: function(data){
if('results' in data){
$('#html_element_for_the_results').html(data.results);
}
else{
alert("Uh oh, no results!");
}
},
error: function(data){
alert("Uh oh! AJAX error!");
}
})
You'll probably want to save this in a function and trigger it on the form submit or button press, however you're planning for the user to submit the data. Anyways, you have a few components: you have the url you're sending it to, the data you're sending (see how it's an object with attributes for both the domain and tld, the two $_GET variables in your PHP script, so that's the data it's sending). Then, when it's done and successful, it does the function in success.
With jquery, you can use the $(element).html('something here') format to replace the innerHTML content of something on the page. So, put the appropriate ID on wherever you want that $results to get shown and select it there in the success function.