FRAMES IN PHP

Anon

Is it possible to have for example 3 frames in a page and have variables that we can pass in parameters betweeen these frames?

If it's possible how can we do it?

mvanbeek

The only ways I know of doing it is using cookies/sessions or by reloading the page within the frame. One page can force an update of the other, by using the target option for the frame, and using a variable in the refresh URL.

You should also be able to run a PHP script in the master page that refreshes all the pages every so often, but that can get annoying.

It all depends on what you want to do.

Anon

I had the same problem and i just reload the frame who need variables and pass them via the url like that :

mypage.php?var1=something&var2=something

you can then use $var1 and $var2 into your page.

Hope that was helpfull

jacinthe

Anon

Hi,

Jacinthe, your method works for sending text strings from frame to frame...but what about complex objects?

I am trying to build a simple page with XML and DOM. I have a DOM object (or "tree" of objects), and I want to send a node (along with it's attributes, and child nodes, which may themselves have child nodes) to another html frame for displaying...I found out that you can pass objects from frame to frame by using the serialize() function...i think it basically dumps the object's information into a text string, that can be fully reconstructed into an object by using unserialize().

To pass an object to another frame, I first serialize it, and then I urlencode() it (i think this adds in the url-type escape chars like %20 for space, etc, so it can be a valid url), and then use the method you mentioned.

e.g.
$var = urlencode(serialize($var));

and then link/refresh the other frame, say, http://my.web.server/myscript.php?input=($var)

then in the other frame, you can access the $input variable, and unserialize it into whatever object $var was. I've found out that you also need to do something called striplashes() before unserializing...and also found out that I didn't need to urldecode() it at all, since I passed it through as a url, the browser already does it (i think). In short, in the new frame, do:

$var2 = unserialize(stripslashes($input));

And viola! $var2 is an object, with the same type and contents as $var!

MY problem is that I am sending a DomNode object, and this does not automatically include any of the attributes or child nodes...I might look into sessions...

OK, hope this helps...

reagent

Why not store this complex object as a session variable.

if you have 2 frames, frame A (let's say that this is a navigation frame) and frame B that has the content for the site.

frame B modifies your object, while frame A displays the session object in some formatted way.

so, every time that frame B modifies this object, just reload frame A and it will automagically display the new data.

of course this is only an option if you are using PHP4 or phplib

Anon

Good point, p. reagan,

I was thinking about that...but do you know if it will work with an XML DOM node object/variable? I think my problem is not in passing/sharing the variables, but something to do with how the DOM object works...

When I try to serialize a DOM node, it loses all attribute and child node information. And I think that if I were to pass this variable through a URL or save it in a session, it would still only save that one node. I can see why this is so, in the view of the DOM model... I just need to find a way to pass a node, and all it's attributes and child nodes, to another frame... Maybe I need to study the DOM a little more...

Thanks!

-Ching-Wei