I am building an app that extracts data from a website and displays them in my app. I am using PHPQuery to extract data in my server-side code.
However, one page contains an .asp form with two dropdown menus. I need to select an option in both of them and then parse the resulting html. I need to do this server-side, so javascript doesn't seem to be the option.
How can I do so? Can it be done using PHPQuery or some other technology is required?
The page in question is: http://www.bput.ac.in/exam_schedule_ALL.asp
Since you're using PHP and phpQuery, I suggest you also try cURL.
Explore what the form submits via JavaScript and replicate that via cURL. Do this to get the format of the posted (assumption) data, which you can then replicate in a cURL request to the same endpoints. JavaScript won't be necessary, and you can get the same results you need. In this case, you won't need the item mentioned next.
Alternatively, if you have a browser, such as webkit, phantomJS, etc, you can write an automation script to run those steps and return the results, depending on exactly what you need returned. See more complete examples here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17449757/573688 for how others suggest you do this. NOTE this is not usually necessary if you just need to emulate POST requests.
This is a non-coded answer because it's not entirely clear what direction helps you the most.
On page works JavaScript, which should make an AJAX request to the server and pass the selected value from both SELECT.
The server receives the AJAX request, performs the request to the correct address (you can use phpQuery) and prints the response (gets to the response on AJAX request).
JavaScript on the page receives a response to an AJAX request and performs actions affected.
Related
I need to run a search using Ajax, such that the response I get from Ajax (should not contain HTML, it should only contain data) is fetched on webpage and then parse that response with HTML on the page and display.
I want to know can it be done, if yes then how to do it. Also is it going to make process run faster or consume less resources on server?
Since you have made no attempt to try to code this, I will give you a couple pointers.
1.) It is very possible, I do it on login forms.
2.) Post data to a external page, then encode the response on that page to an array in JSON. echo out the JSON on the external page.
3.) After your ajax post is finished, you can carry out a function similar to this:
function(data){alert(data.given_name_on_external_page)}
or something similar. Once you google around for Ajax form examples you should be able to grasp a little better.
4.) Now for displaying this on a web page, it is fairly easy.
HTML
<div id='response'></div>
Javascript
function(data){document.GetElementById('response').html=data.data};
That should be enough for you to understand what needs to be done, I will leave the rest to you and your ability to use google :).
use escape and load() functionality in JQUERY
I have a table with a button which onClick calls an external javascript file, which calculates some values and returns them to the table. I need to then write that value back to a file using PHP without leaving the current page. Is there any way to do this? I thought about trying onChange, but I wasn't sure how ot make that work with php since it's usually a javascript call.
PHP is executed on your server
the javascript file, even if external, is run on the client machine.
You can't use PHP on the client machine! You must use javascript to call a php script, stored in your server, that do what you need to.
You're on the good track, you need to use AJAX calls in your javascript.
don't use onclick, search for unobtrusive javascript;
you'd be using jQuery, so you can use its ajax handler;
find out a good reading about the whole topic, before going heads down on writing code.
This sounds like something you could solve by using AJAX. Basically you would communicate with your server in the background, send the data to it so it can process it. You send a separate request in the background which happens without reloading the page.
Please be aware of the distinction between the client (where the JavaScript is run) and the server (where PHP generated the page run by the client).
If you want to use jQuery, that library has some decent functions that makes it easier to implement cross-browser AJAX requests. However I would suggest first researching the topic.
I need to display information from an SQL database which resides on a server, to a remote webworks mobile device. I am extremely new to passing information from a server so bear with me. My normal understanding is that I would have an HTML file that accesses a php script which then itself connects to the database and displays the information.
However, in webworks the HTML/Javascript files reside on the device and are separated from any php file so I need a method to communicate to get the data from the database. I have looked through JSON and read all the tutorials on w3schools and I understand the syntax but I don't understand how to use it. How could it connect to a database? My aim is to simply display the table entries on a mobile device app running HTML5 webworks. Again I am very new to this so any explanation would be very helpful.
Chances are, you should get a book. This is not something that can be explained in detail in a short answer on this site.
in summary however, you can either
1) send requests to your php script by submitting a form on an html page, which will load a new page filled with whatever PHP sends back. in this case you do not need to use JSON at all as PHP would be returning a full html page.
2) you can use AJAX. AJAX is a javascript method of sending requests to the server (PHP), and getting a response without ever loading a new page. you would use AJAX to send a request to the php page, the php page would access the database and send back a response, the javascript would then take the response and do whatever it needs with it. the response data is usually formatted in a JSON format, because PHP can easily create JSON, and javascript can easily decode JSON once it receives it as a response. to make using AJAX simpler, you may want to look in to using jQuery, a javascript library which can simplify the process.
I have been working on parsing some of the data from the wow armory and have come into a bit of a snag. When it comes to the site serving up the achievements that players have received, it uses javascript to intemperate a string such as #73:1283 to display the requested information. (I made this number up but the data for the requests are formated like this).
Is it possible to pull data from a page that requires javascript to display its data with php?
How do you parse data from a site that has been loaded after the dom is ready or complete using php?
By using Firebug, I was able to look at the HTTP headers to see what AJAX calls were being made to generate the content on these pages: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/black-dragonflight/glitchshot/achievement#96:14861 and http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/black-dragonflight/glitchshot/achievement#96
It looks the page is making an asynchronous call to load this page: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/black-dragonflight/glitchshot/achievement/14861 when the part after the hash is 96:14861, and a call to http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/black-dragonflight/glitchshot/achievement/96 when the part after the hash is just 96. Both of those pages return XML that can be parsed to render HTML.
So generally speaking, if there's just one number after the hash, just put http://.../achievement/<number here> as the URL. If there are two numbers, put the second number at the end of the URL instead.
What you'll need to do, rather than pulling the Javascript and interpreting it, is make HTTP requests to those URLs by yourself in PHP (using cURL, for example) and parse the data on your own.
I would really recommend learning JavaScript and jQuery, since it will be very hard for you to really build a good site that pulls information from the WoW Armory without understanding all the AJAX loads that are going on in the background.
I would recommend seeing if you can replicate the query sent by JavaScript in PHP. While I don't believe there is a way to process JavaScript in PHP, there definitely isn't a simple or scalable way.
I would attempt to scan the first page's source that you downloaded with PHP for strings of that format you mention. Then if the JS on their site is querying something like http://www.wow.com/armory.php?id=#72:1284 you can just download the source of that next. You can find out how the JS is querying the server with something like FireBug or the Inspector in Chrome or Safari.
So in summary:
Check to find the JS URL format and if you can replicate it.
Create PHP to get main page and extract all strings.
Create PHP to loop through these strings and get these pages (with URL that JS requests).
Do whatever you wanted to with that information.
You can try jquery's $(document).onready function which helps
to run java script code when the web page loads up.
ex
<div id="wowoData">#4325325</div>
<script>
$(document).ready(
function(){
$("#wowoData").css("border","1px solid red");
}
)
</script>
I was wondering if there is a way to use php to return the values from a search without having to reload the whole webpage or using iframes or anything like that. I've tried searching for it but I always end up with AJAX and I was wondering if there is a PHP way for it...
I suggest you read up on AJAX and what it is, as it is exactly what you are describing.
What AJAX is generating a request on the browser with javascript, sending the request to a server, generating content with whatever technology you want (be it PHP, .NET, etc.) and returning it to the browser, without the page ever 'reloading'. That's all it is, and that's what you want.
I recommend you check out something like jQuery as it is far away the most popular javascript library. It makes doing AJAX requests a piece of cake.
AJAX is what you're looking for. It means using JavaScript (on the browser) to initiate a request to the server (which may be running PHP, or any other language).
PHP is a server-side technology, and what you describe is mostly a client-side issue.
Every technology that does what you want is going to be very close to Ajax, so I suggest to just take a little time and get yourself going with Ajax. There are plenty of javascript frameworks around that make life easier for you as an Ajax programmer.
PHP is server-side. It can't do anything unless a web request is made (i.e. the user clicks on a link, requesting a page). This is why AJAX exists. The javascript on the client side is able to initiate a web request in the background and decide what to do with the response.
Check out jQuery. It makes AJAX a snap:
http://docs.jquery.com/Ajax
Yes I did the same using PHp and Mysql. What you can do is first create a PHP search page1 with a text box and write down some jQuery function for the onkeyup event of text box. Pass the value of the Text Box to the PHP search page2 and display its data in another blank DIV tag on your search page1. Let me know if you were able to get the concept, else I will forward you some link for that. infact I found a youtube video for this. Its not a difficult task.