PHP or another language?

gabe33

I have a table of agents with first_name, last_name and a user_id.
My objective is to have a form on a php page that will dynamically show the first_name last_name of an agent after typing in the user_id and moving to the next field. This is simply a verification tool so that we are sure that each user is being assigned correctly. Does anyone know if this can be done with php or are we looking at maybe using Javascript or ASP?

dougal85

By a table do you mean an HTML table or a table in a database such as mySQL or SQL Server?

Assuming its in a database you then need a serverside language (the server executes the code and sends the output to the viewer). So PHP or ASP would both be able to do this.

If you need to do this in HTML you need a clientside language (it is executed inside the browser). JavaScript would be your choice.

bradgrafelman

gabe33 wrote:
Does anyone know if this can be done with php or are we looking at maybe using Javascript

You're close... combine the two and you get AJAX.

Basically what you're looking at doing is an auto-complete feature using AJAX; once the user_id textbox loses focus (onblur="..."), fire off an AJAX request to the server to retrieve the data for the given user_id.

gabe33

Can I ask an AJAX question here?

I realized after thinking for a moment that it is the PHP part of the AJAX function that is the problem, so I'll ask the question.

Sorry for the long HTML code. I figured if I only post the last part someone would wonder what was happening above it.

<html>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
function ajaxFunction()
{
var xmlHttp;
try
  {
  // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
  xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
catch (e)
  {
  // Internet Explorer
  try
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    }
  catch (e)
    {
    try
      {
      xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
      }
    catch (e)
      {
      alert("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
      return false;
      }
    }
  }
  xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=function()
    {
    if(xmlHttp.readyState==4)
      {
      document.myForm.agentname.value=xmlHttp.responseText;
      }
    }
  xmlHttp.open("POST","getAgent.php",true);
  xmlHttp.send(null);
  }
</script>

<form name="myForm">
Agent ID: <input type="int"
onkeyup="ajaxFunction();" name="agent_id" id="agent_id" />
<input type="text" name="agentname" />
</form>

</body>
</html>

I commented out lines 4-7 to make sure that wasn't the problem and to pose a second question: Is there an easier way to create this variable?
I don't think an If/Else statement is needed, and may actually cause a problem when being returned by the AJAX function.

<?php include("Connections/custsupadmin.php"); ?>
<?php
$agentID = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['agent_id']
//Should the above variable work just as well as the variable below??
//$agentID = "";
//if (isset($_POST['agent_id'];
//  $agentID = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['agent_id']);
//else die();
$getAgent = mysql_query("SELECT * 
                        FROM agents
                        WHERE agent_id = '" . $agentID . "'");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($getAgent))
  {
  echo $row['first_name'] ." ". $row['last_name'];
  }

mysql_close()
?>

The problem is when you enter an agent_id in the form on the html page it sends the request to the server but results in

<br />

If I assign a value to " . $agentID . " and just run the script it works. Any ideas?

gabe33

Any one have any ideas?

mpb001

If you do not set the request header to x-www-form-urlencoded then POST values are not visible to PHP using $_POST
xmlHttp.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8");

http://www.captain.at/howto-ajax-form-post-request.php

Content length should be done automatically by the browser so can be ignored.

If this is not set they are only visible using file_get_contents("php://input") and manual parsing( looks like a url paramater string ).