var transfert between php and javascript - php

Question

I like to get a dir listing in php
glob("*.jpg");
or
$dir = '.'; //requested directory to read
$notthat = array('.', '..'); //what not to include
$listedfiles = array_diff(scandir($dir), $notthat); // removed what not to include
so i like to send that array to a javascript like that (slides = $listedfiles)
function startSlideshow(slides) { .. do something..}
What is the best way to do that ?

Answer 1

json_encode is your friend for this. No looping is necessary. It will return a pure json object string that you can then just echo into your js file using PHP. Example:
var slides = <?php echo json_encode( $filelistarray );?>
function startSlideshow(slides) { .. do something..}

Answer 2

you can always just do an echo of it to a javascript :
echo ' <script type="text/javascript">
var filelist = [];
';
foreach($listedfiles as $file)
{
echo " filelist[] = $file; ";
}
echo "</script>";

Answer 3

PHP and Javascript cannot directly interact, however, you can output Javascript from PHP the same way you can output plain text or HTML:
<script type="text/javascript">
var slides = [];
<?php
foreach ($listedfiles as $file)
{
echo "slides[] = '" . addslashes($file) . "';\n";
}
?>
// ... do js stuff
</script>
Basically, after creating your array in PHP, you output the JS code to create the same array in javascript.