Better way to perform AJAX search on large data - php

I am new to AJAX and looking for better way to do this. I have search box which searches for string in a array of about 10,000 strings. Code is given below but is way too slow. Of course there is a better way. What is it ?? Here is the HTML and javascript
<script>
function showHint(str)
{
var xmlhttp;
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
<body>
<h3>Start typing a name in the input field </h3>
<form action="">
First name: <input type="text" id="txt1" onkeyup="showHint(this.value)" />
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>
</body>
Here is the php code:
include_once("array.php"); //array.php contains array of 10,000 strings
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<count($a); $i++)
{
if (strtolower($q)==strtolower(substr($a[$i],0,strlen($q))))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint=$a[$i];
}
else
{
$hint=$hint." , ".$a[$i];
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;

After half an hour of chat on IRC someone has convinced me that the best way would be to use a search engine like
sphinx search
elastic search

Related

PHP Ajax showhints as user starts typing

I am trying to understand and apply Ajax functionality to my site. But i faced with some questions and I need some explanation . Here is a code that I get from w3school.com:-
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
function showHint(str)
{
var xmlhttp;
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Start typing a name in the input field below:</h3>
<form action="">
First name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="txt1" onkeyup="showHint(this.value)" />
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>
</body>
</html>
// and here is gethint.php code
<?php
// Fill up array with names
$a[]="Anna";
$a[]="Brittany";
$a[]="Cinderella";
$a[]="Diana";
$a[]="Eva";
$a[]="Fiona";
$a[]="Gunda";
$a[]="Hege";
$a[]="Inga";
$a[]="Johanna";
$a[]="Kitty";
$a[]="Linda";
$a[]="Nina";
$a[]="Ophelia";
$a[]="Petunia";
$a[]="Amanda";
$a[]="Raquel";
$a[]="Cindy";
$a[]="Doris";
$a[]="Eve";
$a[]="Evita";
$a[]="Sunniva";
$a[]="Tove";
$a[]="Unni";
$a[]="Violet";
$a[]="Liza";
$a[]="Elizabeth";
$a[]="Ellen";
$a[]="Wenche";
$a[]="Vicky";
// get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_REQUEST["q"]; $hint="";
// lookup all hints from array if $q is different from ""
if ($q !== "") {
$q = strtolower($q);
$len = strlen($q);
foreach($a as $name) {
if (stristr($q, substr($name,0,$len))) {
if ($hint==="") { $hint=$name; }
else { $hint .= ", $name"; }
}
}
}
// Output "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or output the correct values
echo $hint==="" ? "no suggestion" : $hint;
?>
But I have the following questions:
why we use str.length==0? because I thought it should be
fname.length==0
what is the use of q="+str in "gethint.php?q="+str part?
why we use $q=$_REQUEST["q"]? because I thought it should be
$q=$_REQUEST["fname"]
1: str.length==0 will check if entered string should at least 1 character long or not null.
2: q="+str" in gething.php?q="+str" --- it means once you enter any character from this url it will start looking entered character in database by passing(appending) str as parameters in the url.
3: $q=$_REQUEST["q"] .. would get the value passed in url as parameters.
Hope this would help you.
str.length==0? its optional. if you feel its needy then use it else abort .actually this is for showing the result to the innerHTML
q="+str in "gethint.php?q="+str part? bcz xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true); in this xmlhttp.open pass varible in two methods like GET or POST
SO it need to pass the variable where your full data is stored like q from here it pass the value and showing results by use of xmlhttp.send();

AJAX - Retrieving data using JavaScript XMLHttpRequest and PHP

I am trying to use AJAX on a form so that the user doesn't have to leave the current page to submit their name. I have got the function to work when the user types their name; it changes automatically while they're typing. What I'm struggling with is the onClick to submit the name. I am not receiving any response from the PHP file and I do not know why. Here is my code:
The form page: (The submit function sends the name through a global variable via the GET request)
<script type="text/javascript">
//Decalre the variables of name as Global variable
var name;
//For IE 5 + 6
function httpReq(){
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
} else {
// code for IE6, IE5
return xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
}
function nameTest(str) {
if (str.length==0) {
document.getElementById("nameTest").innerHTML="Please enter your name.";
return;
}
httpReq();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
document.getElementById("nameTest").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","nameTest.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
return name = str;
}
// function to submit the users details to the database
function submit(str) {
httpReq();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
document.getElementById("submitted").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","mailing-list.php?name="+name, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
Name: <input type="text" onkeyup="nameTest(this.value)">
<span id="nameTest">Please enter your name.</span>
<input style="width: 100px; height: 40px;" type="button" onclick="submit" value="Join!">
<span id="submitted"></span>
The PHP page which doesn't give a response (Just echoing something simple until I get a response):
<?php
$name = $_GET["name"];
echo "Hello There " + $name;
?>
Can't seem to figure out why there is no response. Any help appreciated!
var name;
//For IE 5 + 6
function httpReq(){
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
} else {
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
}
function nameTest(str) {
if (str.length==0) {
document.getElementById("nameTest").innerHTML="Please enter your name.";
return;
}
var xmlhttp = httpReq();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
document.getElementById("nameTest").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","nameTest.php?name="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
window.name = str;
}
// function to submit the users details to the database
function submit() {
var xmlhttp = httpReq();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
document.getElementById("submitted").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","mailing-list.php?name="+window.name, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
You haven't assigned a value to xmlhttp, probably the console tells you it is undefined, you should check it.
Sorry, there are a lot of errors inside your code. I edited it, you should try now.
submit() doesn't get params, it just get the name from the global variable name(window.name), which was set before by the function nameTest(str).
Last thing: you should check compatibility between what you want client and server side. You used "?q=" instead of "?name=" in your query string, pay attention to these things!
According with LightStyle, you should use the return of httpReq() method to retrieve your requestObject.
var xmlhttp = httpReq();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {...}
You have to modify
onclick="submit"
into onclick="submit();" to make it called.
This PHP script will return 0, the concatenation operator is . in PHP :
<?php
$name = $_GET["name"];
echo "Hello There " . $name;
?>
Value "name" in your function submit(str) is unknown, and thus empty. change that into
xmlhttp.open("GET","mailing-list.php?name="+str, true);
and call your function like this:
submit("NameToShow");
BTW: Using jQuery would make this alot easier for you.

Passing multiple value in ajax using <a> tag, and retrieving a value that was submitted

This is a very simple function if one where to use an input tag, unfortunately i have to use a link tag since i'm working with alphabet grouping that would retrieve the values on a different page.
here's a code i found for link tag to hold a value to be submitted to ajax
echo '<a onclick="passPagination(\'3\');passLetter(\'S\')">NEXT</a>';
i want to call all letters "s" page "3" from the other page.
function passLetter(str)
{
if (str=="")
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","otherpage.php?letter="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
function passPagination(str)
{
if (str=="")
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","otherpage.php?pageno="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
also i want to call again the letter that was passed to the otherpage so that i would make it as a reference for my pagination links that is also being hold in this page.
echo 'NEXT';
i am really at lost here since i am not familiar with link tag and ajax working together, also as you may have noticed i am not also that good with ajax judging from my very long ajax code.
Your help is greatly appreciated, Thank You.
i am really new at ajax. :)
The solution is to make a function with multiple arguments:
function passPaginationAndLetter(page, letter)
{
if (page=="" || letter == "")
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","otherpage.php?letter="+letter+"&pageno="+page,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
You can now call this with
echo '<a onclick="passPaginationAndLetter(\'3\',\'S\')">NEXT</a>';
The difference is that you are not calling two AJAX methods, just one.
I'm not pretty sure if i got what you mean, but i guess you want to something like that
echo '<a onclick="get(\'S\', '. ($_GET['page'] + 1) .')">NEXT</a>';
function get(letter, page) {
if (!letter) {
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (!page) {
page = 1;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
} else {
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
document.getElementById("retail_group").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","otherpage.php?letter=" + letter + "&pageno=" + page,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
if it's really that, don't forget to validate the variables got from $_GET before use that, i just didn't because it's not the point...
I think this is what you're looking for:
html
PREVIOUSNEXT
javascript
var current = {
page: 0,
letter: a
};
function ajax(url) {
var xmlhttp = window.XMLHttpRequest || new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function(xmlhttp) {
if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
document.getElementByI("retail_group").innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
function next() {
ajax("otherpage.php?letter=" + current.letter + "&pageno=" + (++current.page));
}
function previous() {
ajax("otherpage.php?letter=" + current.letter + "&pageno=" + (--current.page));
}
This code is not complete of course, it doesn't check for the max/min values of the pages, and there's no way of replace the letter, but it should point you in the right direction.

1st Time to AJAX, Don't understand some line of codes

I am new to programming and its my first time to learn AJAX with PHP.
I got a working sample code from internet and studying it but there are some codes that I don't understand and I am really frustrated.
In the index.php, I am so confused about the code xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true);. I dont know what the q stands for. As far as I understand, q should stand for an html element with a name q. For example I have <input type="text" name="q" /> then I know that I have a textbox name q. But in this example I can't find any element that has a name q. Pls help...
index.php
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function showHint(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p><b>Start typing a name in the input field below:</b></p>
<form>
First name: <input type="text" onkeyup="showHint(this.value)" size="20" />
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>
</body>
</html>
gethint.php
<?php
// Fill up array with names
$a[]="Anna";
$a[]="Brittany";
$a[]="Cinderella";
$a[]="Diana";
$a[]="Eva";
$a[]="Fiona";
$a[]="Gunda";
$a[]="Hege";
$a[]="Inga";
$a[]="Johanna";
$a[]="Kitty";
$a[]="Linda";
$a[]="Nina";
$a[]="Ophelia";
$a[]="Petunia";
$a[]="Amanda";
$a[]="Raquel";
$a[]="Cindy";
$a[]="Doris";
$a[]="Eve";
$a[]="Evita";
$a[]="Sunniva";
$a[]="Tove";
$a[]="Unni";
$a[]="Violet";
$a[]="Liza";
$a[]="Elizabeth";
$a[]="Ellen";
$a[]="Wenche";
$a[]="Vicky";
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<count($a); $i++)
{
if (strtolower($q)==strtolower(substr($a[$i],0,strlen($q))))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint=$a[$i];
}
else
{
$hint=$hint." , ".$a[$i];
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;
?>
In your example, q is a parameter that is passed to gethint.php with the value contained in the variable str.
The variable gets its value from the "First name" input element, whenever a key is pressed and released (the onkeyup event).
The value of q is then accessed in the PHP file by the line $q=$_GET["q"];.
You can name the parameters passed to the PHP page however you like, they don't need to correspond to HTML elements.
q is name of parameter of HTTP GET request:
Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol#Request_methods
its a LIKE A URL parameter which is simmilar to
php,
gethint.php?q=mYstring
echo $_GET['q'];// output as mYstring
In js,
var str ='mYstring';
"gethint.php?q="+str
echo $_GET['q'];// output as mYstring
i thing u can get if any problem accour add comments..pal
(DO it always)

AJAX & PHP -Retrieving more than one value

I'll get to the point, assume my PHP script returns an array with two values, how would I address them within javascript?
<script type="text/javascript">
function ValidateCard(cardno)
{
if (cardno.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("txtprice").innerHTML="";
return;
}
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("txtprice").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","coding/validation/validatecard.php?cardno="+cardno,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
As you can see whatever is returned is send to display within a div tag, how would I differentiate between data?
Thanks
You could use json to serialize it so that javascript can read it.
So, in php json_encode($arr);
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
Then in javascript.
you should be able to do something like jsarr[key] to get the values
<?php
$result = array('success'=>1, 'messgae'=>"the message you want to show");
echo json_encode($result);
?>
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
result = xmlhttp.responseText.evalJSON(true);
//you can use result as array to get the information you want to check
if (result['success']) {
document.getElementById("successs").innerHTML=result['message'];
}
}
}

Categories