Moving JavaScript into PHP - php

Question

I'm just starting out with PHP, and I am attempting to move some jQuery ajax into PHP. Here is my PHP file:
<?php
include 'config.php';
include 'opendb.php';
$query = "SELECT * FROM agency ORDER BY name";
$result = mysql_query($query);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
$id = $row['id'];
$name = $row['name'];
echo "<li class=\"agency\">$name<ul class=\"agency-sub\"></ul></li>";
}
include 'closedb.php';
?>
Here is my current js function:
//Add Agency content
$("ul.top-level").on("click", "li.agency a", function (event) {
if($(this).next().length) {
var numbs = $(this).attr("href").match(/id=([0-9]+)/)[1];
showContentAgency(numbs, this);
} else {
$(this).closest('ul').find('a').removeClass('sub-active');
}
event.preventDefault();
});
And here is the showContentAgency(); function:
function showContentAgency(id, elem) {
$.post("assets/includes/contentAgency.php?id=id", {
id: id
}, function (data) {
$(elem).addClass("nav-active").parent().find("ul").html(data).show();
});
}
What I'd like to do is have PHP render the unordered list rather than have jQuery insert it. This is how it is currently featured in the above PHP file:
echo "<li class=\"agency\">$name<ul class=\"agency-sub\"></ul></li>"
So I would like the PHP to populate the <ul class="agency-sub"> list.

Answer 1

The structure of your code is a little bit unclear to me, but the broad outline is this: You take whatever function is generating the content in contentAgency.php and call that to get the HTML, then stick that inside when you're building up the list.

Answer 2

Php can not access the DOM of the page like Jquery can. If you wanted to access the DOM with Php, you would have to parse the entire web page, which is probably impractical for what you want to do. Php can only modify the page before it is loaded by the browser. If you want to run code after page load, you have to use javascript.
We might be able to help you more if you post more of your code, as we currently don't know what the page's code looks like.

Answer 3

Is this a list inside list?
By the way you can write php code like below, it is more readable
<?php
include 'config.php';
include 'opendb.php';
$query = "SELECT * FROM agency ORDER BY name";
$result = mysql_query($query);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
$id = $row['id'];
$name = $row['name'];
echo "<li class='agency'><a href='contentAgency.php?id=$id'>$name</a><ul class='agency-sub'></ul></li>";
}
include 'closedb.php';
?>
if you are using double quotes in echo you can use single quotes inside.

Answer 4

I'm uncertain as to what exactly you want but it sounds like you're looking for the 'foreach' loop. When I wanna populate a list of stuff from a result set i simple use:
<ul>
<? foreach($result as $object) ?>
<li><?=$object?></li>
<? endforeach; ?>
</ul>
foreach acts a for loop but doing all the logic in the background. Hope this helps.