Writing PHP output into textfield - php

Question

I've tried looking around for the answer to this but I can't seem to find it.
I have a database which takes in two pieces of information and returns it either as successful or unsuccessful.
I would like to be able to press a button "Submit" and then run my PHP query(which is fine) to print out an echo into a textbox once it has been completed.
echo '<form name="enrolled" method="post" action="<MY FUNCTION HERE>"><select name="course">';
Once my function is complete, it will echo something out. I would like for a textbox display that echo.
The problem I have been having is that it wasn't working in realtime, I could easily get an echo to display on a textbox but I cant get it to stay blank and then once the function has completed, populate the box.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

Answer 1

As nathan says you seem tobe a bit confused about php works. It writes HTML (or other stuff) which is sent to the browser where it is rendered. Until you send another request back to the server, PHP sits idle. If you don't want to transition from the current page but update it's contents then you need to create javascript that, when triggered makes a request to the server (and takes appropriate action when the server responds.
If you Google for PHP Ajax tutorial you'll find lots of examples.

Answer 2

Not elegant at all but just echo the whole field...
echo "<input type='text' name='something' value='the value you want to echo'>";
Not really sure what you are trying to do in your PHP.

Answer 3

The html form action attribute it is supposed to be a URI, not a javascript function.
For update in realtime a form, or just a input, you can use javascript and perform ajax request. If you want make it fast and quickly I recommend you use Mootools Request class for make a ajax update in your form.
You can see a full demo example of ajax real time updates (HTML, PHP, Javascript) in Mootools site.

Answer 4

Two ways of doing it:
Via Post and refresh:
your form you be something like
script.php
<?php
$result = "Hello world!"; //Do your logic anywhere but be sure to set the result here
?>
<form method="post" action="script.php">
....
<input type="text" value="<?= $result?>" readOnly>
<input type="submit">
</form>
the other way is via AJAX
that will take a lot more research. Try this one, it's much simpler!

Answer 5

You need to post your form using AJAX and then display results in the box. It's easy done with jQuery library. To include jQuery library just add this to your html head
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
Then you can submit your form using this script
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#myform").submit( function () {
$.post(
'post.php',
$(this).serialize(),
function(data){
$("#result").html(data)
}
);
return false;
});
});
post.php in the name of the script you are calling that will receive the form and return the answer. myform is id of the form and result is id of the box you want to display results to.

Answer 6

You are thinking about PHP the wrong way; PHP doesn't interact with the web browser directly. What you need is AJAX. Here's why:
The client (web browser) sends a request to the web server (apache, lighttpd, etc.)
The web server interprets that request, and (in this case) hands it over to PHP
PHP echoes the result based on the input given to it by the web server
The web server sends that result back to the web browser
The web browser determines what to do with that information
Now, if this is you navigating to a web page, the web browser renders the content generated by your web server (which used PHP to generate it). If the web server has already responded, that's it - you've got your response. To get more information, you'll have to make a new request, which means you have to do one of these two things (typically):
Navigate in your browser by submitting a form, reloading, navigating to a new page, etc.
Use Javascript (which is executed by the client, not the server) to make a "background" request
The technique of using Javascript to make a request "in the background" and update the page without reloading is called AJAX, and there are many ways to accomplish the task, but by far the easiest and most popular method is to use the JQuery library, which is a wonderful kit of useful functions and additions to Javascript that make it less painful (even enjoyable!) to work with - including a simple function for making AJAX requests using the POST method.
There is a lot to learn on the subject, but hopefully this will give you a solid enough understanding of what you need to know to accomplish this task.