Transfer JavaScript Array to PHP array using ajax? - php

Question

I am trying to transfer a list of data from a javascript array to a php array and I can't seem to get ajax to do the trick. Can someone show me the code on how to do this? So far here is what I have, which is just the array:
JAVASCRIPT
var dates;
// the dates array is then filled up here
// it contains information in the form {'2012-01-01', '2012-03-12', ...}
$.ajax({
type: "REQUEST",
url: "NAMEOFPHPFILE.php",
data: { sendData1 : dates },
success: function() {
alert("Attempting to transfer array -> AJAX");
}
});
var submissions;
// the submissions array is then filled up here
// it contains information in the form {int, int, ...}
// ect ......... with 3 more arrays using { sendData2 : submissions },
PHP
<?php
$bDates = $_REQUEST['sendData1'];
// need to set this array = to the JavaScript dates array
$bSubmissions = $_REQUEST['sendData2'];
// need to set this array = to the JavaScript submissions array
?>
I would prefer to use the REQUEST method to prevent information logging into the URL. This code also doesn't work when trying POST instead of REQUEST
At the very end of the .php page, I am outputting a bunch of arrays onto a CSV page where I iterate through the arrays and place their elements in the file. This already works, but I need to transfer some of these arrays from javascript to PHP so that I can spit out the data. That looks like this:
<?php
$stringData = "Dates, Number of Lines Changed, , Bug Dates, Arrivals, Fixed, Closed, Hold_";
for($i = 0; $i < sizeof($dataXAxis); $i++){
$date = substr($_REQUEST['Dates'][$i+1], 0, 24);
$stringData .= "$date, $dataYAxis[$i], , $bDates[$i], $bSubmissions[$i], $bCompletions[$i], $bDones[$i], $bRejections[$i]_";
}
echo '<BR><BR>Download Your CSV File';
?>
Why doesn't the AJAX work? The arrays appear empty...

Answer 1

One method would be to try sending the data in the form of JSON. Then using json_decode, you can convert it to an array. Example:
var Json = {"User1":"John", "User2":"Joe", "User3","Jerry"};
var data = "data="+Json;
hr = new XMLHttpRequest();
hr.onreadystatechange = function(){
if(hr.readyState == 4 && hr.status == 200){
console.log(hr.responseText);
}
}
hr.open("POST", "parsefile.php", true);
hr.send(data);
Then when you get the data in your PHP file it's something like:
$data = $_POST['data'];
$array = json_decode($data, true);
This all will tell php to turn our data into an assosciative array. It can then be manipulated as an assosciative array.

Answer 2

I was literally just working on this.
jQuery
var group_ids = $('.form-elements li').map(function(){
return $(this).data('group-id')
}).get()
$.get('{{ url('group/update_order_by') }}', {group_ids: group_ids});
PHP from the restful Laravel framework
public function get_update_order_by()
{
$group_ids = Input::get("group_ids");
$group_count = count($group_ids);
for ($i = 0; $i < $group_count; ++$i) {
$group = Group::find($group_ids[$i] );
$group->order_by = $i;
$group->save();
}
return true;
}
Raw PHP (ugh...)
$group_ids = $_GET("group_ids");
$group_count = count($group_ids);
for ($i = 0; $i < $group_count; ++$i) {
echo $group_ids[$i];
}
return true;

Answer 3

The simply convert an array to string
var data = [1,2,"hello"];
var data_str = data.join(",");
and afterwards convert the string to array in php:
$array = explode(",", $_REQUEST["data"]);

Answer 4

In PHP, the REQUEST expects arrays to be passed in the following format:
sendData1[]=first&sendData1[]=second&sendData1[]=third
This is automatically converted into an array:
$sendData = $_REQUEST['sendData`];
echo $sendData[0];
echo $sendData[1];

Answer 5

First, for the sake of simplicity, create an array holding both arrays you want to send and parse:
var request = Array(dates, submissions);
Second, make sure you're sending your request as properly formatted JSON. In addition, when testing I recommend returning the output from the remote file in your callback to see how your data was parsed. I recommend the following implementation, as well as sending via POST:
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "NAMEOFPHPFILE.php",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
data: JSON.stringify(request),
success: function(data) {
alert(data);
}
});
In your PHP file, get you can parse the contents of the aforementioned request into an array using the following:
<?php
// convert json data read from the input stream to an array
// *note* you MUST set the true flag in the json_decode() function, otherwise it will convert the data into an object
$request = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);
var_dump($request);
You should now get an alert containing the var_dump of the array(looks messy, I know!).
This should be enough to get you started, hope it helps!