I'm making a website which displays a big list of items, similar to how eBay lists items. For each item there is a button that allows you to save it to your "wish list," and a link that brings you to a page that lists all the items on your wishlist.
How would I go about implementing this? I am currently using Javascript cookies and passing the values in the URL for PHP to pick up and display the wish-listed items. It feels like there must be an easier/better way to do this though. Any suggestions?
The best way to store the wish list is the database only. You can do that by some ajax.
Or if you dont want to store in database then store it in session. I personally feels that the session will be the best thing.
I am not sure what you mean with I was using javascript cookies, passing the values in the url, but unless you want to save the wish-list to Db, a cookie will be a good way to go.
Another way would be to execute an ajax-request to the server when you add something to the list, having the server-side code saving the item for you in a session. Then session could then be read when you want to display the list.
Also, HTML5 gives you local storage. Maybe too limited browser support for you, but worth checking out.
Related
This is the situation, I've got a big array ( 280 items ) which creates a really big form by going trough loops.
I want the user to be able to disable certain items, so they can 'pre make' their form ( and skip the not used ones ), You are probably going to say i can just remove what's not needed. But they need different items from the array every time they use it.
So how would i make a page where they can just use checkbox to 'change' the form. ( if possible at all.)
Thanks,
Mike
edit:
Did not think of sharing code, here:
The array : http://pastebin.com/EnwHsqtK
the form : http://pastebin.com/y2XSFBG4
the page which makes a .txt file from the given answers. http://pastebin.com/UaUcsj2z ( not sure if anyone would need this. )
Might be a bit messy. I'm new in PHP, and only programming for a year. Also dont mind the language please.
If you want to permanently record form preferences/settings for each user, you'd want to create an additional table or column(s) in your database for this, give the users additional checkboxes on the form to indicate their preferences, receive this input and store it in the database, and of course finally disable certain fields based on their settings.
But if you just want to give the users a temporary way to disable certain fields (with no preferences saved permanently), you would use JavaScript in your output. You would add more form controls (checkboxes or buttons or whatever) to the HTML and then add JavaScript code snippets into that HTML to disable form elements when the user clicked on the controls. This kind of making changes when users click is called "triggers that fire based on events". The most commonly-used event is called "OnClick()" and the JavaScript code for it will execute when a user clicks on something.
Many folks who use JavaScript also find it helpful to use the functions in the jQuery library instead of raw JavaScript. To do this, you just add one line of HTML to the top of your page to include the JavaScript libraries from a publicly-hosted server, then you can use jQuery commands in your page.
The only thing to remember when you first start using JavaScript/jQuery is that it only runs on the client browser - its code cannot talk directly to the server, the database, or many things you can access in PHP. JavaScript/jQuery is specifically used for making your HTML pages more interactive. Plain HTML doesn't have much razzle-dazzle. JavaScript allows users to do things like enable and disable form fields on-the-fly.
I'm working on a travel website. I'm looking for a function that allows my users to click a hotel and save their selection to a "list" on the sidebar.
I want it to function like a cart so that the list never erases and so that you can see the selection until you are ready to print everything out.
Any help/suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks!
If your users are going to be clicking around to a lot of pages, it will be a real challenge to keep sending this growing list around from page to page on the client side. I would recommend that you consider a different approach. One is cookies, and another is session state.
If you are using server-side code, it would help us to know what language you are using so that we can give you some more ideas.
I would suggesting using AJAX to pass the selection to the backend. If you want this to persist across multiple sessions you're going to want to save it to a database so they can come back later.
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/
Use cookies if you don't want to use php.
http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_cookies.asp
has a good example of how to use cookies in javascript.
I recommend using "My favourite posts" wordpress plugin for this kind of job.
I want to make a webpage where an user can add the title from a book he has read. These changes are reflected in real time on a list that contains all books he has introduced on the database, without the need to press any "reload" button. By example: there is no need to refresh (F5) the page to see the last book added.
I don't know if I can do this in PHP or in any other language, so I would like to know which is the best suited for something like this.
Thank you.
I think you are looking for Ajax. Would be able to asynchronously update the section of the page (the post in this case) without the need for page refresh.
You will want to do this with javascript, using the onchange event, and for a discussion on this you can look at: Call Javascript onchange event by programatically changing textbox value.
Basically, you react to the data being changed, then just send it immediately over using ajax to the server, but, you need to be aware of two things.
First, how will you handle errors, such as there is no book with that title, or the length is too long. I tend to put the error message in or by the place where they had the bad data.
The other is that you need to pass back the id when the data was inserted, so that when they change it again you can just do an update, so you will need to store that. I tend to put the database id I need in the element id, but you can keep it in an array in javascript, since it will maintain state for you.
I want to store a variable in the URL while they are browsing.
For example:
A menu, when the user selects ?category=shopping it goes to a map with shopping and they can click on a place and it should go to ?category=shop&id=22.
If they return to the menu then the ?category should be removed and if they click on something else e.g ?category=cafe.
I've been really puzzled with this and would appreciate any help - thanks!
If you just need to store state between pages, as your title suggests, then you can store this information inside the $_SESSION superglobal array. You start a new session by running session_start() as the very first line of any new page, before any output is sent to the browser. Anything you then store inside of $_SESSION will be available when you start the session in the same way on the next page.
If you're only interested in building a query string (i.e. the ?field=value&field2=value2 portion of the URL), as the content of your question indicates, then you might want to take a look at the http_build_query() function.
Your question seems a little ambiguous to me as to what your actual goal is for this, so I gave you both approaches. Just remember that you should use $_SESSION for state, and http_build_query() for creating dynamic URLs to point to specific content. Also remember that if the data needs to be secure, then you shouldn't put it in the URL or anywhere else the user could modify it, or where others could read it (e.g. in the browsers address bar). That sort of information needs to be in $_SESSION.
Thats a good use for session variables.
$_SESSION["category"]="stuff";
you can then keep it until you dont want it any more, or they terminate their session
I want to store a variable in the URL while they are browsing.
You can't actually "store" anything in the URL.
If you want to pass some data from one page to another using query string, you have to add this data to the query string.
"A map with shopping" should add category to the every it's link.
That's the way every web application works.
Session is not the way to go, because every page on the site should have it's address, and your category being important part of this address. If you store it in the session, no bookmark can be added, no link to be sent to a friend and no search engine will index your goods.
I'm looking to create a multi page ordering form the first page would contain some dropdown and text fields, the second page would contain more text fields, the third page would be an order summery with paypal payment option.
I'm just wondering what the best way to create this order form is. I've used sessions in the past but never with users entering in text and picking items from drop downs, does anyone have any resources for doing this? Or does anyone know of a jquery or other ajax example or plugin I might be able to use and modify.
any insight would be a big help.
thanks
The simplest technique might be to use hidden form fields to carry fields from previous screens through to the final screen.
Just make sure you validate all the values when the final screen is submitted to make sure that the user hasn't twiddled the data.
You don't need to do pagination at all if you don't won't to. Just use css to show/hide the "pages". It doesn't sound like you have to save the "state" at any point.
But if you want to do multiple pages, use a session or a cookie to track the user. Then save the data to a database a mark it as incomplete. On the final page, retrieve it all and show it on the page. The server can't tell if a request is ajax or not, so it doesn't matter what you use for submission.