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Monday, 5 May 2014

PHP - AJAX and MySQL

AJAX can be used for interactive communication with a database.

AJAX Database Example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from a database with AJAX:

Example

Person info will be listed here...

Example Explained - The MySQL Database

The database table we use in the example above looks like this:

id	FirstName	LastName	Age	Hometown	Job
1	Peter	Griffin	41	Quahog	Brewery
2	Lois	Griffin	40	Newport	Piano Teacher
3	Joseph	Swanson	39	Quahog	Police Officer
4	Glenn	Quagmire	41	Quahog	Pilot

Example Explained - The HTML Page

When a user selects a user in the dropdown list above, a function called "showUser()" is executed. The function is triggered by the "onchange" event:

<html>
<head>
<script>
function showUser(str) {
if (str=="") {
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","getuser.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<form>
<select name="users" onchange="showUser(this.value)">
<option value="">Select a person:</option>
<option value="1">Peter Griffin</option>
<option value="2">Lois Griffin</option>
<option value="3">Glenn Quagmire</option>
<option value="4">Joseph Swanson</option>
</select>
</form>
<br>
<div id="txtHint"><b>Person info will be listed here.</b></div>

</body>
</html>

The showUser() function does the following:

Check if a person is selected
Create an XMLHttpRequest object
Create the function to be executed when the server response is ready
Send the request off to a file on the server
Notice that a parameter (q) is added to the URL (with the content of the dropdown list)

The PHP File

The page on the server called by the JavaScript above is a PHP file called "getuser.php".
The source code in "getuser.php" runs a query against a MySQL database, and returns the result in an HTML table:

<?php
$q = intval($_GET['q']);

$con = mysqli_connect('localhost','peter','abc123','my_db');
if (!$con) {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error($con));
}

mysqli_select_db($con,"ajax_demo");
$sql="SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = '".$q."'";
$result = mysqli_query($con,$sql);

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Hometown</th>
<th>Job</th>
</tr>";

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Age'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Hometown'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Job'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

mysqli_close($con);
?>

Explanation: When the query is sent from the JavaScript to the PHP file, the following happens:

PHP opens a connection to a MySQL server
The correct person is found
An HTML table is created, filled with data, and sent back to the "txtHint" placeholder

PHP - AJAX and PHP

AJAX is used to create more interactive applications.

AJAX PHP Example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can communicate with a web server while a user type characters in an input field:

Example

Start typing a name in the input field below:
Suggestions:

Example Explained - The HTML Page

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

<html>
<head>
<script>
function showHint(str) {
if (str.length==0) {
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
    return;
}
var xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) {
    document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
    }
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","gethint.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<p><b>Start typing a name in the input field below:</b></p>
<form>
First name: <input type="text" onkeyup="showHint(this.value)">
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>

</body>
</html>

Source code explanation:
If the input field is empty (str.length==0), the function clears the content of the txtHint placeholder and exits the function.
If the input field is not empty, the showHint() function executes the following:

Create an XMLHttpRequest object
Create the function to be executed when the server response is ready
Send the request off to a file on the server
Notice that a parameter (q) is added to the URL (with the content of the input field)

The PHP File

The page on the server called by the JavaScript above is a PHP file called "gethint.php".
The source code in "gethint.php" checks an array of names, and returns the corresponding name(s) to the browser:

<?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
$q=$_REQUEST["q"]; $hint="";

// lookup all hints from array if $q is different from ""
if ($q !== "") {
$q=strtolower($q); $len=strlen($q);
  foreach($a as $name) {
    if (stristr($q, substr($name,0,$len))) {
      if ($hint==="") {
        $hint=$name;
      } else {
        $hint .= ", $name";
      }
    }
  }
}

// Output "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or output the correct values
echo $hint==="" ? "no suggestion" : $hint;
?>

AJAX Introduction

AJAX is about updating parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.

What is AJAX?

AJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
AJAX is a technique for creating fast and dynamic web pages.
AJAX allows web pages to be updated asynchronously by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes. This means that it is possible to update parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.
Classic web pages, (which do not use AJAX) must reload the entire page if the content should change.
Examples of applications using AJAX: Google Maps, Gmail, Youtube, and Facebook tabs.

How AJAX Works

AJAX is Based on Internet Standards

AJAX is based on internet standards, and uses a combination of:

XMLHttpRequest object (to exchange data asynchronously with a server)
JavaScript/DOM (to display/interact with the information)
CSS (to style the data)
XML (often used as the format for transferring data)

	AJAX applications are browser- and platform-independent!

Google Suggest

AJAX was made popular in 2005 by Google, with Google Suggest.
Google Suggest is using AJAX to create a very dynamic web interface: When you start typing in Google's search box, a JavaScript sends the letters off to a server and the server returns a list of suggestions.

Start Using AJAX Today

In our PHP tutorial, we will demonstrate how AJAX can update parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page. The server script will be written in PHP.
If you want to learn more about AJAX, visit our AJAX tutorial.

PHP SimpleXML

PHP SimpleXML handles the most common XML tasks and leaves the rest for other extensions.

What is PHP SimpleXML?

SimpleXML is new in PHP 5.
The SimpleXML extension provides is a simple way of getting an XML element's name and text.
Compared to DOM or the Expat parser, SimpleXML just takes a few lines of code to read text data from an XML element.
SimpleXML converts the XML document (or XML string) into an object, like this:

Elements are converted to single attributes of the SimpleXMLElement object. When there's more than one element on one level, they are placed inside an array
Attributes are accessed using associative arrays, where an index corresponds to the attribute name
Text inside elements is converted to strings. If an element has more than one text node, they will be arranged in the order they are found

SimpleXML is fast and easy to use when performing tasks like:

Reading/Extracting data from XML files/strings
Editing text nodes or attributes

However, when dealing with advanced XML, you are better off using the Expat parser or the XML DOM.

Installation

As of PHP 5, the SimpleXML functions are part of the PHP core. No installation is required to use these functions.

PHP SimpleXML Examples

Assume we have the following XML file, "note.xml":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Now we want to output different information from the XML file above:

Example 1

Output keys and elements of the $xml variable (which is a SimpleXMLElement object):

<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
print_r($xml);
?>

Run example »

The output of the code above will be:

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [to] => Tove [from] => Jani [heading] => Reminder [body] => Don't forget me this weekend! )

Example 2

Output the data from each element in the XML file:

<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
echo $xml->to . "<br>";
echo $xml->from . "<br>";
echo $xml->heading . "<br>";
echo $xml->body;
?>

Run example »

The output of the code above will be:

Tove
Jani
Reminder
Don't forget me this weekend!

Example 3

Output the element's name and data for each child node:

<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
echo $xml->getName() . "<br>";

foreach($xml->children() as $child) {
echo $child->getName() . ": " . $child . "<br>";
}
?>

Run example »

The output of the code above will be:

note
to: Tove
from: Jani
heading: Reminder
body: Don't forget me this weekend!

More PHP SimpleXML

For more information about the PHP SimpleXML functions, visit our PHP SimpleXML Reference.

PHP XML DOM

The built-in DOM parser makes it possible to process XML documents in PHP.

What is DOM?

The W3C DOM provides a standard set of objects for HTML and XML documents, and a standard interface for accessing and manipulating them.
The W3C DOM is separated into different parts (Core, XML, and HTML) and different levels (DOM Level 1/2/3):

Core DOM - defines a standard set of objects for any structured document
XML DOM - defines a standard set of objects for XML documents
HTML DOM - defines a standard set of objects for HTML documents

If you want to learn more about the XML DOM, please visit our XML DOM tutorial.

XML Parsing

To read and update - create and manipulate - an XML document, you will need an XML parser.
There are two basic types of XML parsers:

Tree-based parser: This parser transforms an XML document into a tree structure. It analyzes the whole document, and provides access to the tree elements
Event-based parser: Views an XML document as a series of events. When a specific event occurs, it calls a function to handle it

The DOM parser is an tree-based parser.
Look at the following XML document fraction:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<from>Jani</from>

The XML DOM sees the XML above as a tree structure:

Level 1: XML Document
Level 2: Root element: <from>
Level 3: Text element: "Jani"

Installation

The DOM XML parser functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

An XML File

The XML file below will be used in our example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Load and Output XML

We want to initialize the XML parser, load the xml, and output it:

Example

<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("note.xml");

print $xmlDoc->saveXML();
?>

The output of the code above will be:

Tove Jani Reminder Don't forget me this weekend!

If you select "View source" in the browser window, you will see the following HTML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

The example above creates a DOMDocument-Object and loads the XML from "note.xml" into it.
Then the saveXML() function puts the internal XML document into a string, so we can output it.

Looping through XML

We want to initialize the XML parser, load the XML, and loop through all elements of the <note> element:

Example

<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("note.xml");

$x = $xmlDoc->documentElement;
foreach ($x->childNodes AS $item) {
print $item->nodeName . " = " . $item->nodeValue . "<br>";
}
?>

The output of the code above will be:

#text =
to = Tove
#text =
from = Jani
#text =
heading = Reminder
#text =
body = Don't forget me this weekend!
#text =

In the example above you see that there are empty text nodes between each element.
When XML generates, it often contains white-spaces between the nodes. The XML DOM parser treats these as ordinary elements, and if you are not aware of them, they sometimes cause problems.

If you want to learn more about the XML DOM, please visit our XML DOM tutorial.

PHP XML Expat Parser

The built-in Expat parser makes it possible to process XML documents in PHP.

What is XML?

XML is used to describe data and to focus on what data is. An XML file describes the structure of the data.
In XML, no tags are predefined. You must define your own tags.
If you want to learn more about XML, please visit our XML tutorial.

What is Expat?

To read and update - create and manipulate - an XML document, you will need an XML parser.
There are two basic types of XML parsers:

Tree-based parser: This parser transforms an XML document into a tree structure. It analyzes the whole document, and provides access to the tree elements. e.g. the Document Object Model (DOM)
Event-based parser: Views an XML document as a series of events. When a specific event occurs, it calls a function to handle it

The Expat parser is an event-based parser.
Event-based parsers focus on the content of the XML documents, not their structure. Because of this, event-based parsers can access data faster than tree-based parsers.
Look at the following XML fraction:

An event-based parser reports the XML above as a series of three events:

Start element: from
Start CDATA section, value: Jani
Close element: from

The XML example above contains well-formed XML. However, the example is not valid XML, because there is no Document Type Definition (DTD) associated with it.
However, this makes no difference when using the Expat parser. Expat is a non-validating parser, and ignores any DTDs.
As an event-based, non-validating XML parser, Expat is fast and small, and a perfect match for PHP web applications.
Note: XML documents must be well-formed or Expat will generate an error.

Installation

The XML Expat parser functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

An XML File

The XML file below will be used in our example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Initializing the XML Parser

We want to initialize the XML parser in PHP, define some handlers for different XML events, and then parse the XML file.

Example

<?php
//Initialize the XML parser
$parser=xml_parser_create();

//Function to use at the start of an element
function start($parser,$element_name,$element_attrs) {
  switch($element_name) {
    case "NOTE":
    echo "-- Note --<br>";
    break;
    case "TO":
    echo "To: ";
    break;
    case "FROM":
    echo "From: ";
    break;
    case "HEADING":
    echo "Heading: ";
    break;
    case "BODY":
    echo "Message: ";
  }
}

//Function to use at the end of an element
function stop($parser,$element_name) {
  echo "<br>";
}

//Function to use when finding character data
function char($parser,$data) {
  echo $data;
}

//Specify element handler
xml_set_element_handler($parser,"start","stop");

//Specify data handler
xml_set_character_data_handler($parser,"char");

//Open XML file
$fp=fopen("test.xml","r");

//Read data
while ($data=fread($fp,4096)) {
  xml_parse($parser,$data,feof($fp)) or
  die (sprintf("XML Error: %s at line %d",
  xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)),
  xml_get_current_line_number($parser)));
}

//Free the XML parser
xml_parser_free($parser);
?>

The output of the code above will be:

-- Note --
To: Tove
From: Jani
Heading: Reminder
Message: Don't forget me this weekend!

How it works:

Initialize the XML parser with the xml_parser_create() function
Create functions to use with the different event handlers
Add the xml_set_element_handler() function to specify which function will be executed when the parser encounters the opening and closing tags
Add the xml_set_character_data_handler() function to specify which function will execute when the parser encounters character data
Parse the file "test.xml" with the xml_parse() function
In case of an error, add xml_error_string() function to convert an XML error to a textual description
Call the xml_parser_free() function to release the memory allocated with the xml_parser_create() function

More PHP Expat Parser

For more information about the PHP Expat functions, visit our PHP XML Parser Reference.

PHP Database ODBC

ODBC is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows you to connect to a data source (e.g. an MS Access database).

Create an ODBC Connection

With an ODBC connection, you can connect to any database, on any computer in your network, as long as an ODBC connection is available.
Here is how to create an ODBC connection to a MS Access Database:

Open the Administrative Tools icon in your Control Panel.
Double-click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon inside.
Choose the System DSN tab.
Click on Add in the System DSN tab.
Select the Microsoft Access Driver. Click Finish.
In the next screen, click Select to locate the database.
Give the database a Data Source Name (DSN).
Click OK.

Note that this configuration has to be done on the computer where your web site is located. If you are running Internet Information Server (IIS) on your own computer, the instructions above will work, but if your web site is located on a remote server, you have to have physical access to that server, or ask your web host to to set up a DSN for you to use.

Connecting to an ODBC

The odbc_connect() function is used to connect to an ODBC data source. The function takes four parameters: the data source name, username, password, and an optional cursor type.
The odbc_exec() function is used to execute an SQL statement.

Example

The following example creates a connection to a DSN called northwind, with no username and no password. It then creates an SQL and executes it:

$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');
$sql="SELECT * FROM customers";
$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);

Retrieving Records

The odbc_fetch_row() function is used to return records from the result-set. This function returns true if it is able to return rows, otherwise false.
The function takes two parameters: the ODBC result identifier and an optional row number:

odbc_fetch_row($rs)

Retrieving Fields from a Record

The odbc_result() function is used to read fields from a record. This function takes two parameters: the ODBC result identifier and a field number or name.
The code line below returns the value of the first field from the record:

$compname=odbc_result($rs,1);

The code line below returns the value of a field called "CompanyName":

$compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");

Closing an ODBC Connection

The odbc_close() function is used to close an ODBC connection.

odbc_close($conn);

An ODBC Example

The following example shows how to first create a database connection, then a result-set, and then display the data in an HTML table.

<html>
<body>

<?php
$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');
if (!$conn) {
exit("Connection Failed: " . $conn);
}

$sql="SELECT * FROM customers";
$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);
if (!$rs) {
exit("Error in SQL");
}

echo "<table><tr>";
echo "<th>Companyname</th>";
echo "<th>Contactname</th></tr>";
while (odbc_fetch_row($rs)) {
  $compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");
  $conname=odbc_result($rs,"ContactName");
  echo "<tr><td>$compname</td>";
  echo "<td>$conname</td></tr>";
}
odbc_close($conn);
echo "</table>";
?>

</body>
</html>

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Monday, 5 May 2014

PHP - AJAX and MySQL

AJAX Database Example

Example

Example Explained - The MySQL Database

Example Explained - The HTML Page

The PHP File

PHP - AJAX and PHP

AJAX PHP Example

Example

Example Explained - The HTML Page

The PHP File

AJAX Introduction

What is AJAX?

How AJAX Works

AJAX is Based on Internet Standards

Google Suggest

Start Using AJAX Today

PHP SimpleXML

What is PHP SimpleXML?

Installation

PHP SimpleXML Examples

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

More PHP SimpleXML

PHP XML DOM

What is DOM?

XML Parsing

Installation

An XML File

Load and Output XML

Example

Looping through XML

Example

PHP XML Expat Parser

What is XML?

What is Expat?

Installation

An XML File

Initializing the XML Parser

Example

More PHP Expat Parser

PHP Database ODBC

Create an ODBC Connection

Connecting to an ODBC

Example

Retrieving Records

Retrieving Fields from a Record

Closing an ODBC Connection

An ODBC Example