PHP arrays into javascript

Anon

Hi i have a problem

i am trying to use a php array in javascript. I am creating and three select box system, where the contents of the second box depends on the first and the third depends on the second.

i can get this working with using just javascript and that is it. However the problem comes when i try to create the arrays for the second and third boxes using PHP to get them (i undertand about how javascript is client side and php is only server side, that isn't the problem.).

I have created functions in the javascript section that are used for changing these boxes and know how to make it work without the php arrays however i am calling a lot of data from the database. The questions are

Can i call javaScript functions from php, if so how?
What is the coding convention for both interacting in terms of can i place php tags inside javascript ones or vise versa, or must they be seperate totally.

Thanks very much for your help

James

Anon

I'm not sure you understand the client side vs server side issue completely.

When the page is requested, php runs on the server and creates the document to be served (the document might have some javascript in it; but php is running, not a javascript interpreter). When php is finished, the document is sent to the browser as the response.

When the browser recieves the document it can (if scripting is turned on) run javascript. But anything related to php is long gone. No php code, no php variables were sent in the response.

Anon

i understand what you are saying. But i need to use those php arrays that i have got for use on a javascript script. i have the following functions that basically create the next drop down select list when the previous one is selected .

function O(txt,url)
{
itemsIndex++;
a[catsIndex][itemsIndex] = new Array();
a[catsIndex][itemsIndex].text = txt;
a[catsIndex][itemsIndex].value = url;
subItemsIndex = 0;
}

function OO(txt,url)
{
a[catsIndex][itemsIndex][subItemsIndex] = new myOptions(txt,url);
subItemsIndex++;
}

</script>

the seperate arrays entrys needed to be passed into a javascript code so they can run through these functions and produce the output at the end of it

Anon

Is the following what you want (I'm still not sure I understant what you are trying to do)?

1) You have some data in the form of lists of text/url pairs (in php arrays on the server).

2) You have the javascript code to display the dropdowns that will run on the client.

3) You need to get the text/url data into the javascript objects after the page loads at the client?

If that's what you want, I usually just echo a bunch of javascript function calls from php. Write then into the doeument <HEAD> so they are run before the page displays. You'll need some kind of a loop in the php here to write out the contents of the arrays as the parameters in the javascript function calls.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT"
<?php

echo "OO ('" . arr[theText] . "', '" . arr2[theURL] . "');";

?>
</SCRIPT>