invite window

[ing_rivera]

I am creating a games website. There's an invite button and a text box in one of the pages. The purpose of this is for an user to type the id of other online user in the text box and then invite him to play pressing the invite button. After one user press that button an "invite window" has to popup in the other user's page.

Can somebody send me a reply with an idea or the actual code of how to do this?

[alvinkoh]

Hi,

You're trying to emulate a "realtime" popup which is difficult in PHP unless you make use of some kind of hidden frame (frame with 0 height, or iframe) which is refreshed periodically (e.g. every 1 minute).

The frame/page being refreshed will check the stored value (usually database or flatfile) for any updates and if there's notice, it will output a javascript popup event (alert()) on the receivers' browser.

IMO, this is fairly process intensive (the constant refreshing) and would only work if the recipient has the site page constantly open.

Another method is simply to check the database for an update, everytime a user enters the page - thus evoking a javascript pop-up.

Cheers,
Alvin.

[ing_rivera]

well if that is the way to do it, then can somebody give the code to create a hidden frame (frame with 0 height, or iframe) which is refreshed periodically every 1 minute?

[alvinkoh]

Originally posted by ing_rivera
well if that is the way to do it, then can somebody give the code to create a hidden frame (frame with 0 height, or iframe) which is refreshed periodically every 1 minute?

// Using normal frames

<script language='Javascript'>
var reloader = setInterval('myHiddenFrame.location.refresh()',60000); // 60000ms = 60 seconds
</script>

<frameset rows="0,*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0">
<frame src="hiddenframe.php" name="myHiddenFrame" scrolling="NO">
<frame src="main" name="myMain">
</frameset>

---

// Using Iframe

<script language='Javascript'>
var reloader = setInterval('myiFrame.location.refresh()',60000); // 60000ms = 60 seconds
</script>

<iframe id='myiFrame' width="0" height="0" src="hiddenframe.php"></iframe>

These are sample codes and the javascript probably needs tweaking to work correctly (untested for syntax).