ammaps / amcharts using dataLoader and passing post - php

Question

Using ammaps' dataLoader, is there a way to pass post parameters to an external file?
I'm creating a report that contains a map, which when clicked, will provide a list of news articles from a MySQL table. I'm pulling in json data using dataLoader. However, I need to be able to pass a value (reportId) to the script that generates the json file.
here's my code:
var map = AmCharts.makeChart("mapdiv", {
type: "map",
"dataLoader": {
"url": "maparticlesfeed.json.php",
"format":"json",
"showErrors": false//,
// tried this:
//"type" : "post",
//"data" : {"reportIdFromPost" : 1}
},
. . . //the rest of the map config
And this is maparticlesfeed.json.php:
<?php include('database-connect.php');
$con=Database::connect();
$query=$con->prepare("SELECT * from articles Where reportId=$POST['reportIdFromPost']");
$query=>execute();
$articlesList=$query->fetchall(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
?>
{
"map" : "MyMapName",
"_comment" : "Here, instead of hard-coding the headlines, we will iterate through $articlesList",
"areas" : [
{ "title" : "Virginia",
"id" : "US-VA",
"selectable" : true,
"numArticles" : 4,
"articles" : [
{ "headline" : "This is the first headline",
"link" : "link url"
},
{ "headline" : "This is the second headline",
"link" : "link url"
},
{ "headline" : "This is the third headline",
"link" : "link url"
},
{ "headline" : "This is the fourth headline",
"link" : "link url"
}
]
},
{ "title" : "Tennessee",
"id" : "US-TN",
"selectable" : false,
"numArticles" : 6
}
]
}

Answer 1

I went the jQuery route to solve this. I'd still like to know if there's a way to do this with dataLoader, but here's a workaround in case anyone else has this issue in the future:
$.ajax({
dataType: "json",
url: "maparticlesfeed.json.php",
data: { reportIdFromPost: 1 },
type: "post",
success: function(data){
console.log(data); // for debugging
makeMap(data);
},
error: function(data) {
console.log('it did not work.');
console.log(data.responseText);
}
});
function makeMap(theData) {
var map = AmCharts.makeChart("mapdiv", {
type: "map",
/* DON'T NEED THIS ANYMORE:
"dataLoader": {
"url": "maparticlesfeed.json.php",
"format":"json",
"showErrors": false
},*/
// replace instead with this:
"dataProvider" : theData,
// ... the rest of the map config ...
}
});
And, in maparticlesfeed.json.php:
<?php
include('database-connect.php');
$con=Database::connect();
if(!empty($_POST) && isset($_POST['reportIdFromPost']) ) {
$postedReportId= $_POST['reportIdFromPost'];
}
include('database-connect.php');
$con=Database::connect();
$query=$con->prepare("SELECT * from articles Where reportId=$postedReportId ");
$query->execute();
$articlesList=$query->fetchall(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
?>
{
"map" : "MyMapName",
"areas" : [
// Code to json_encode the results from $articlesList
]
}

Answer 2

It may be that you're posting json data and then not decoding it when you're trying to use the value in your php script.
Try this at the top of maparticlesfeed.json.php:
<?php
include('database-connect.php');
$postedValues = json_decode($POST['reportIdFromPost'], true);
$con=Database::connect();
$query=$con->prepare("SELECT * from articles Where reportId=$postedValues['reportIdFromPost']");
$query=>execute();
$articlesList=$query->fetchall(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
?>
You'll also need to uncomment the two lines in the map config:
"type" : "post",
"data" : {"reportIdFromPost" : 1}

Answer 3

Maybe you could add the parameters in the "url" parameter of the dataloader.
"url": "urlA.do?param1=" + $('.selector').val()
and then in some trigger (ie. button click) modify the url and reload
var url = "same URL with different parameters values";
chart.dataLoader.url = url;
chart.dataLoader.loadData()