I'm working on a editing tool (type of a simple CMS) in PHP/MySQL for a product catalog. I have search the Internet for a solution but I don't even know what to search for. So now my hope is on you guys.
I have a form where you can put all kinds of data like part.no, description an so on. All of this data is saved into a MySql table (items). I also have a table with predefined specifications.
What I want to do, and that I can't find a solution for, is to have a dropdown meny (or similar) and a add button to add a row for each related specifications without saving the whole form each time. I want to save first when all specifications is selected.
So, can I use PHP for this or do I need jQuery/Javascript or similar? I know it's possible, have seen it in OpenCart :-)
I hope someone understands my question. It's hard to explane i a language I'm not fully manage.
Regards
Client-side vs Server-side
Javascript: This sits in the user's browser. So anything you want to move in the user's browser will be done with JavaScript. This is "client-side"
PHP: This site on the server, so takes inpute from the user's browser and gives back a response (generally HTML, but can also be JSON or XML which is read by Javascript.). This is "server-side".
Libraries
jQuery: This is a set of functions written for Javascript to make it easier. So it runs in the user's browser and makes it easier for you to write bits that move on the screen.
You get similar libraries that help you write PHP (commonly called "frameworks") and there are many others for javascript as well.
Where to start
Write your HTML page as you want it to look. Keep it simple for the first time.
Then write some javascript (possibly using jQuery) to move the menu. Google "jquery menu dropdown" or similar and you'll find a solution you cna customise.
Then write some PHP that gives you the HTML you wrote in '1'.
Then decide what's going to happen when you click on a link in the HTML, and repeat the process (write HTML, incorporate Javascript to make it move, write PHP to give HTML)
Then work out which bits of the HTML are common or structured and should come from a database.
Without writing it for you (in which case you'll never learn) best to start one bit at a time and build as your knowledge grows. Bucket loads of examples on the web when youreach a particular problem you need to solve.
After comment "[how to] make it possible to select and add single/multiple specifications (from another table) without saving the whole form each time a specs is added":
Growing with AJAX
What you are asking is AJAX - this is where you get Javascript to talk to the server, and for javascript to move bits on the page based on the results. jQuery is probably the easiest (and probably has best documentation / examples for the ajax, as well as moving the DOM).
Basically: you have an "event" that you trap in JavaScript, example
/// Using jQuery to trap a button click
$().ready( function() {
$("#ButtonID").click( function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
alert('Button Clicked');
});
});
Then you build in an AJAX call inside that event (also check out get or post as the syntax is easier, you just get less control). The AJAX wil send a request to your PHP server, and you can get PHP to return HTML which you can replace/insert using the DOM manipulation functions linked below (e.g. before, html etc) or, when you get more advanced, you'll send back JSON which is a data structure you cna more easily manipulate in JavaScript to stipulate what actions are required.
As above, without actually writing it for you, the best place to start is to read the docs and have a go. Google "jquery AJAX PHP table example" or similar and you'll find an example somewhere.
Related
I recently created an image that automatically changes depending on the time thanks to a PHP script. I'm now thinking about doing something but I'm not sure if it's possible.
I do have restrictions. I need this to work on a forum board so it means I have to have all scripting on a different server. I would Google how to do this but I'm not sure what to search hence the broad title. If someone could possibly tell me if it's possible and show a small example to get me on the right track, that'd be appreciated.
What I need to do is print text out onto the page. As I stated above, all the scripting needs to be on a different server as the forum doesn't allow for php and only basic HTML (similar to here). This means I can't use include 'file.php';.
IMHO You have two options
Use HTML iframe element to embeed the external content (just give the external URL and the browser will handle the rest)
Call ajax request from javascript and inject the result into the DOM tree of the board.
Now that Your decision what suits You more.
I thought I should ask this before moving forward with my scripting project and later on realizing that I might be doing something wrong. Might as well save my own time in the first place by checking if what I'm doing is indeed correct.
I'm pretty new to PHP and JQuery and still getting the hang of them both. I recently came across a problem in which I wanted to run some PHP code after executing a certain function using JQuery, so after doing some reading online I got the idea to create a PHP file which does just what I want to do and POST to it from my JQuery function with the needed variables. That way I achieve my server-side and client-side goals on the same time. However!
It doesn't look right to me. At all. I find myself having at least ten include files for one simple page. Those files get included in my HTML code when the form loads, and after refreshing a certain DIV with my JQuery function, they get reloaded. That way I can keep my script dynamic, I doubt there's something else I could do in order to keep it that way.
However I often need to update stuff after executing a certain JQuery function, hence I call a similar file to the loading one, but this time it's a file which I transfer some parameters to (using the POST method, through JQuery), and execute the desired action in the file itself.
Now, after briefly explaining my current situation and method of work, I'd like to know if what I'm doing is correct. In case you're still wondering what the hell I am talking about, I'd like to explain in detail what I mean:
Let's say I have my index.php file which prints data from my database and some additional lines as well. Once I click one of the page buttons, I want to update my database according to the form I've got implanted in my page as well, and then reload the DIV which contains that data ONLY. I do not want to reload the entire page.
Now if I wanted to do that without JQuery that would have been easy. I would POST the data to the same form and update it if the POST parameters are indeed valid. However, there's no way to refresh that DIV without JQuery, so I came up with something similar to this:
$.post("/files/dosomething.php", { taskID: _taskID }, function(){
$("#div_tasks").fadeOut(800, function(){
$('#div_tasks').load('/files//load_div_A.php', function(){
$("#div_tasks").fadeIn(1500);
});
});
});
That's what I've been doing in my last week of learning PHP and JQuery. Now before I proceed any further than this, I'd like to know if it is indeed the right way to achieve my goal.
// EXAMPLE B:
I've got a DIV in my HTML code which prints a table of tasks, for instance. How do I print it? I include a file which echo's the table at the exact point where I want the table to be displayed. Then, in each row, there's a button called 'delete' which removes the selected row from the database. What I do is, using JQuery (due to the fact I want ONLY that DIV to be refreshed), I call another external file calling remove.php and send the index of the task I'd like to remove using POST. The file performs the server-side code and once it's done, I load the updated table into that DIV by calling the file I used to call in the first place from my main page. This time the table will be updated due to the fact it will read the updated data from the database.
Is that how I get this done? Is this the right way? It just doesn't seem right to me. I've never been codding that way and it seems a little bit messy.
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long ass question.
The problems you describe are exactly what the separation of concerns patterns (like MVC) where designed to tackle.
In your case from display instance to display instance the only thing that changes is how the response must be formatted and provided back to the user.
I would highly recommend looking at some of the more popular and well documented MVC Frameworks for your project (or if for nothing else just to play with and draw inspiration from, most of them and some pretty easy to follow starter tutorials you can run through in an hour or so).
It seems to me you are viewing the problem in a mindset compatible with these approaches and it probably feels clunky to you mainly because you are missing a lot of the structure and tooling that these frameworks provide.
If I am understanding the question correctly. I would think that it would be easier to post(using jQuery) to another script that performs the action you want to perform and only returns the result(html/json data) that you want. Right now you are making two requests to the server for something that seems to be tied together.
My suggestion would be to call one PHP script that performs the specific action that you want to perform(say an update to a news item for an example). Then return that data only in your response and then format that data how you want to in your div using jQuery.
$.post("/files/writetodatabase.php", { taskID: _taskID }, function(data){
$('#div_tasks').html(data) // this is assuming you return html, other wise you // could return JSON data and use it here
});
I tried to make that as clear as possible, difficult to explain when typing.
I have a little bit of a conundrum. Basically I'm developing a WYSIWYG Editor plugin for jQuery specifically for my web application. One of the features will be inserting an inline image tooltip based on the images a user has uploaded. For example:
Hello there my name is [i="profile_pic.png"]A. Username[/i]
The part that I'm having an issue with is, when defining which images are available to a user, whether I should insert the PHP array directly into the Javascript like so:
var available_images = "<?=json_encode($User->Profile->images)?>";
or to go for an Ajax GET that returns an encoded array of the image sources? I think the inline php makes more sense since it removes the need for an unnecessary ajax call but I didn't think that inserting inline php into javascript is terribly good form?
Any suggestions?
There's nothing wrong with inserting data collected by PHP into JS, how else would JS get the data? The only reason you should consider the AJAX call would be, if users could upload new images while they are editing. This would mean the information needs to be updated, which would make the AJAX call more appealing than the static JSON on page load.
Unless the array changes in any way over the life time of the page, then I'd spit out the array exactly as you suggest in your code snippet. There isn't any real benefit to having an extra ajax call because the size of the array I'm guessing won't be so huge as to impact the initial page load time.
If you look around the Stack Overflow pages and do view-source, they do this sort of thing all the time.
If the amount of data is huge and maybe adds a seven or more seconds to the page load time then I'd consider an ajax call. At least the page is rendered and the user has something to look at, meanwhile you can have a throbber image with a status message saying loading or whatever.
I'd also say that I see a lot of unnecessary ajax goings on just for the sake of it. It's like premature optimisation, people adding complexity to solve a problem they don't have. Start off simple as you're doing, if you're having response time issues down the road with the said page, then consider what benefits ajax will bring to the table.
Do you always get the array of images, or only sometimes (e.g. in response to a user's action)? If the former, I'd say do it inline. Otherwise do it as AJAX. i.e. only do it by AJAX if it'll reduce your traffic etc. But if you have to always do it, I don't see any advantage. I don't see any problem with mixing inline php and javascript, other than it means you have to do your javascript inline too instead of in external .js files that can be cached (or at least the part where you populate your array).
i have a php script who parser a rss and give me the data in a know pattern. Im very new with ASP, JavaScript and Jquery so i dont have any idea of how to autoupdate the script and display the new data with a smooth animation (see this example, that exactly what i want). Thanks for the support and if you know a good script to made this i will appreciate it.
Seems like you're looking for this:
http://leftlogic.com/lounge/articles/jquery_spy2/
It's PHP (not ASP), so that might be an issue, though the code is SUPER easy to implement (I've written by own implementation on three separate occasions).
The site itself has some decent documentation on getting things up and running, but if you need some extra help, comment and I'll point you in the right direction :)
Good luck!
The resources people have linked here are helpful and merely mentioning jQuery means you're probably headed in the right direction. But if you're new to this it might still be worth mentioning some of the concepts you'll be looking to play with here.
First of all, you'll probably want to stick with one language on the client side and one on the server side. This means choosing either PHP or ASP -- this isn't clear from your question but I'll assume you're dealing with PHP since that's the language I use for this kind of thing. JavaScript + jQuery is the right choice for the browser (client) side of things.
Like Luca points out, you'll have to set up some JavaScript code that goes live on page load and "polls" the server at a set interval. In JavaScript you do this using something called XMLHttpRequest (or "XHR") and it's pretty complicated. You could use combination of jQuery and a library like the one Matt points to in his answer, or just jQuery -- sample code abounds but it's basically a loop with a function call and sleep timer.
That function call is going to be one of the more difficult parts if you're trying to emulate the Twitter World Cup site. But here's the basic idea: You need to populate a list using jQuery and a data standard like JSON. Since the RSS feed you'll be parsing is written in XML, you'll have to write a server side (PHP/ASP) script that fetches, parses and converts the feed to JSON. In PHP, this is best done through cURL (file_get_contents() if you're lazy), SimpleXML and json_encode(), respectively.
Your JavaScript should load the list based on JSON. To do this, and display any new items, what you'll do is load the JSON from the client (browser) side using a jQuery method like getJSON(). Then you spin through the array object and add any new items to the list by adding new <li> elements to the "DOM." The same jQuery code that does this can easily also do the cross dissolve with something like fadeIn().
It looks like the script on that example page has an Ajax request running every TOT seconds.
You could simply have your PHP script return the RSS data (in JSON format say) and let JavaScript parse it and generate some HTML with it.
If all of this doesn't make sense to you I advice reading a little about JavaScript and PHP... there's plenty of good books.
I've been asked to create a web UI that allows a user to modify a specific section of the HTML DOM and then POST the modifications back to the server for storage. The modification should be done via drag'n'drop, with my tool of choice being jQuery. The server will be PHP, but written by someone else since I'm not a PHP programmer.
The only way I can think to do this is to send back to the server the entire DOM section via AJAX whenever it is modified. However, that is expensive since the section could be quite large. Furthermore I'm not sure how I'd efficiently capture the modified section and write it to a string which can be sent to the server. Overlapping events would also be a big concern.
Any ideas for a better approach? Are there libraries/tools (JavaScript or server-side) that I should be considering? Many thanks.
Well if you are dealing with some list of elements, say rows in table you can send back a map where particular row is mapped to a position then when you re-initialize the page you can feed such map back and rearrange the list.
Also - another idea (since you are using PHP) you can have some sort of a model on the back end which backs your visual DOM element, then again - you send back some parameters you have changed (order, size, etc.) and adjust/save the model
Instead of sending the entire DOM section you should try to serialize the DOM section you're sending to something more lightweight (like JSON). Since it's HTML, serializing it to JSON will dramatically reduce it's size.
Apart from that I think there's not much you can do besides some AJAX request to allow the server to save the changes.
You'd want to use something like the UI plugin to facilitate the actual dragging/dropping/reorganizing. I don't know of any libraries that will pick out DOM objects and AJAX information to a server in a particular fashion, so you would probably have to code something like that yourself to suit your specific needs. It might help to know what sort of DOM node you're trying to send.
If you're building something like a custom WYSIWYG, sending the entire node might be the best approach without losing information. If you're doing something simple like allowing users to drag and drop to reorder a list something like the following code might suffice:
var toPost = '';
function handler(data) {//handle server response}
$("ul#container li").each(function(){toPost+=this.getAttribute('rel');});
$.post('processing_script.php',{data:toPost},handler);
I checked into how Google handles these. If you drag and drop an element on the iGoogle homepage, a GET request is sent to the Google handling script with the following parameters:
et '4af26272PQUMZP8V'
mp '19_1:4_1:7_1:13_1:16_1:18_2:2_2:3_2:14_2:11_2:_opt_3:17_3:6_3:12_3'