Archive for February 29th, 2008

Published by Admin on 29 Feb 2008

AJAX Suggest Source Code

AJAX Source Code to Suggest Example

The source code below belongs to the AJAX example on the previous page.

You can copy and paste it, and try it yourself.

The AJAX HTML Page

This is the HTML page. It contains a simple HTML form and a link to a JavaScript.

<html>
<head>
<script src="clienthint.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
First Name:
<input type="text" id="txt1"
onkeyup="showHint(this.value)">
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>
</body>
</html>

The JavaScript code is listed below.

The AJAX JavaScript

This is the JavaScript code, stored in the file “clienthint.js”:

var xmlHttp

function showHint(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
  {
  document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
  return;
  }
xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlHttp==null)
  {
  alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
  return;
  }
var url="gethint.asp";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlHttp.send(null);
} 

function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlHttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText;
}
}

function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
var xmlHttp=null;
try
  {
  // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
  xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
catch (e)
  {
  // Internet Explorer
  try
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    }
  catch (e)
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    }
  }
return xmlHttp;
}
The AJAX Server Page – ASP and PHP

There is no such thing as an AJAX server. AJAX pages can be served by any internet server.
The server page called by the JavaScript in the example from the previous chapter is a simple ASP file called “gethint.asp”.

Below we have listed two examples of the server page code, one written in ASP and one in PHP.

AJAX ASP Example

The code in the “gethint.asp” page is written in VBScript for an Internet Information Server (IIS). It just checks an array of names and returns the corresponding names to the client:

<%
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
%>
AJAX PHP Example

The code above rewritten in PHP.

Note: To run the entire example in PHP, remember to change the value of the url variable in “clienthint.js” from “gethint.asp” to “gethint.php”.

PHP Example
<?php
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
 // Date in the past
header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");

// 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; $i<count($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;
?>
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AJAX

Published by Admin on 29 Feb 2008

AJAX Suggest Example

We have seen that AJAX can be used to create more interactive applications.

AJAX Suggest Example

In the AJAX example below we will demonstrate how a web page can communicate with a web server online as a user enters data into a standard HTML form.

Type a Name in the Box Below
First Name:

Suggestions:

Example Explained – The HTML Form

The form above has the following HTML code:

<form>
First Name:
<input type="text" id="txt1"
onkeyup="showHint(this.value)">
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>

As you can see it is just a simple HTML form with an input field called “txt1″.

An event attribute for the input field defines a function to be triggered by the onkeyup event.

The paragraph below the form contains a span called “txtHint”. The span is used as a placeholder for data retrieved from the web server.

When the user inputs data, a function called “showHint()” is executed. The execution of the function is triggered by the “onkeyup” event. In other words: Each time the user moves his finger away from a keyboard key inside the input field, the function showHint is called.

Example Explained – The showHint() Function

The showHint() function is a very simple JavaScript function placed in the <head> section of the HTML page.

The function contains the following code:

function showHint(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
  {
  document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
  return;
  }
xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlHttp==null)
  {
  alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
  return;
  }
var url="gethint.asp";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlHttp.send(null);
}

The function executes every time a character is entered in the input field.

If there is some input in the text field (str.length > 0) the function executes the following:

  • Defines the url (filename) to send to the server
  • Adds a parameter (q) to the url with the content of the input field
  • Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
  • Creates an XMLHTTP object, and tells the object to execute a function called stateChanged when a change is triggered
  • Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given url.
  • Sends an HTTP request to the server

If the input field is empty, the function simply clears the content of the txtHint placeholder.

Example Explained – The GetXmlHttpObject() Function

The example above calls a function called GetXmlHttpObject().

The purpose of the function is to solve the problem of creating different XMLHTTP objects for different browsers.

The function is listed below:

function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
var xmlHttp=null;
try
  {
  // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
  xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
catch (e)
  {
  // Internet Explorer
  try
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    }
  catch (e)
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    }
  }
return xmlHttp;
}
Example Explained – The stateChanged() Function

The stateChanged() function contains the following code:

function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlHttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText;
}
}

The stateChanged() function executes every time the state of the XMLHTTP object changes.

When the state changes to 4 (“complete”), the content of the txtHint placeholder is filled with the response text.

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AJAX