AJAX ASP/PHP Example

AJAX is used to create more dynamic applications.

AJAX ASP/PHP Example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can communicate with a web server while a user types characters in an input field: Please type a letter (A - Z) in the input field below:

Example

Try typing a letter "a" in the input field:

Prompt message:

Example Analysis - showHint() Function

When a user types a character in the input field above, the function "showHint()" is executed. This function is triggered by the "onkeyup" event:

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","/try/ajax/gethint.php?q="+str,true);
    xmlhttp.send();
}

Source Code Analysis:

If the input field is empty str.length==0, the function clears the content of the txtHint placeholder and exits.

If the input field is not empty, the showHint() function performs the following tasks:

• Creates an XMLHttpRequest object
• Executes a function when the server response is ready
• Sends the request to a file on the server
• Note that we add a parameter q (with the content of the input field) to the URL

AJAX Server Page - ASP and PHP

The JavaScript in the above example calls a server page named gethint.php, which is a PHP file.

Below, we have created two versions of the server file, one written in ASP and the other in PHP.

ASP File

The source code in "gethint.asp" checks an array of names and returns the corresponding names to the browser:

<%
response.expires=-1
dim a(30)
'Fill up array with names
a(1)="Anna"
a(2)="Brittany"
a(3)="Cinderella"
a(4)="Diana"
a(5)="Eva"
a(6)="Fiona"
a(7)="Gunda"
a(8)="Hege"
a(9)="Inga"
a(10)="Johanna"
a(11)="Kitty"
a(12)="Linda"
a(13)="Nina"
a(14)="Ophelia"
a(15)="Petunia"
a(16)="Amanda"
a(17)="Raquel"
a(18)="Cindy"
a(19)="Doris"
a(20)="Eve"
a(21)="Evita"
a(22)="Sunniva"
a(23)="Tove"
a(24)="Unni"
a(25)="Violet"
a(26)="Liza"
a(27)="Elizabeth"
a(28)="Ellen"
a(29)="Wenche"
a(30)="Vicky"

'get the q parameter from URL
q=ucase(request.querystring("q"))

'lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if len(q)>0 then
  hint=""
  for i=1 to 30
    if q=ucase(mid(a(i),1,len(q))) then
      if hint="" then
        hint=a(i)
      else
        hint=hint & " , " & a(i)
      end if
    end if
  next
end if

'Output "no suggestion" if no hint were found
'or output the correct values
if hint="" then
  response.write("no suggestion")
else
  response.write(hint)
end if
%>

PHP File

The following code, written in PHP, serves the same purpose as the ASP code above.

<?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; $i&lt;count($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;
?>