Problem loading dynamic files with PHP/AJAX - php

Question

I have created a fairly secure landing page for our clients to download copies of their contracts.
You hit retrieve.php, the EULA (jQuery Dialog) appears. After you sign and accept, the jQuery dialog disappears.
An AJAX call is sent to the server to get the hashed filename and a link is generated to view the PDF securely in your browser.
The problem is, now the company wants me to add a JPG version of the contract. The contract is either 2 or 3 pages, depending on what service they want to use with us.
The problem I am having is how do I generate the correct number of links for the jpg versions? Everything is done in AJAX, and I would prefer not to return the number of images from AJAX.
The image names are (same hash as pdf)-.jpg
Does anybody have a dynamic way to do this?
I wrote a function that does this in PHP, but since I am running the link generation on the client side, it will not work.
My question is:
I you were me, would you return all 3 or 4 links (pdf + however many jpgs there are) back through JSON?
Would you pass the number of pages back in json and create the links dynamically?
Do you have any better solutions?
Some code:
Here is the AJAX Call that gets sends the info to the server then creates the links:
$.ajax({ type: 'POST',
url: 'getContractAJAX.php',
data: {
'pin' : pin.val(),
'name' : signature.val().toUpperCase(),
'lead' : '<?php echo $_GET['lead']; ?>'
}, /* end data */
cache: false,
success: function(contractId) {
if (contractId['success'] == true) {
contractExpireDate = new Date(contractId['contractExpDate']);
today = new Date();
// Log the signature.
$.post('log.php', {
signature: $("#electronicSignature").val().toUpperCase(),
pin: $("#eSpin").val(),
lead: '<?php echo $_GET['lead']; ?>',
method: 'SIGNATURE'},
function(log) {
if(log['success'] == true) {
/* DOWNLOAD IMAGES LINKS */
$("#downloadLinks").prepend("<a href='#' onclick='log(\""+contractId['contract']+"\", \"DOWNLOAD\");'><img src='img/btnDownloadPdf.png' alt='Downdload PDF' /><br />Download Contract in Adobe © PDF</a>");
} else {
alert("There was a problem! Please contact customer support.");
showDisclosure();
} /* end else */
}); /* end function(log) */
$("#dialog-confirm").dialog("close");
getContractAJAX.php:
if (isset($_POST['pin']) && isset($_POST['name']) && isset($_POST['lead'])){
$pin = $_POST['pin'];
$name = trim($_POST['name']);
$email = $converter->decode($_POST['lead']);
/*
*
*
* PDO
*
*
*/
$stmt = $dbh->prepare("SELECT contract, contractExpireDate
FROM users
WHERE emailAddress=:email AND
pin=:pin AND
concat(firstName, ' ', lastName) LIKE :name AND
contractExpireDate > NOW()
LIMIT 1");
if ($stmt->bindParam(':email', $email, PDO::PARAM_STR) &&
$stmt->bindParam(':pin', $pin, PDO::PARAM_INT) &&
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name, PDO::PARAM_STR)) {
$stmt->execute();
$found = 0;
foreach ($stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) as $el) {
$found++;
$contract = $el['contract'];
$contractExpDate = $el['contractExpireDate'];
}
$stmt = null;
}
if ($found > 0) {
$success = true;
} else {
$success = false;
$error = "NO MATCHES FOUND >>> $email >>> $pin >>> $name";
}
}else{
$success = false;
$error = "NOT ALL PASSED";
}
header('Content-type: application/json');
$json = array("contract" => $contract,
"contractExpDate" => $contractExpDate,
"success" => $success,
"messege" => $error);
echo json_encode($json);

Answer 1

Why not return a single compressed file (tar, zip, etc.) of all of the images? That would give you a single download and makes the download faster/smaller.