unlink()

[justinbentley]

Hi,

It seems the unlink() function runs on page load no matter where it occurs in the code. I would like to only run unlink() when the user click "yes" on a java confirm dialog box.

I have tried putting Unlink() inside another function and then calling that function when the user click "yes", but unlink() still occurs as soon as the page loads.

Can anyone illuminate what's going on? Code below...

<form name="form1" method="post" action="">
<label for="delete"></label>
<input name="delete" type="button" class="form_header" id="delete" value="Delete" onClick="confirm_delete()">
<label for="upload"></label>
<input name="upload" type="button" class="form_header" id="upload" value="Upload" onClick="window.location = 'upload_user_photo.php';">
</form>
<script language="javascript">
function confirm_delete() {
if (confirm('Are you sure you want to delete this file. This action cannot be undone.')) {
<?php
$path = "images/user_photos/";
$filename = $row_rsetUserinfo['user_photo_url'];
?>
<?php unlink($path . $filename); ?>
}
]
</script>

Any help is appreciated.

[HalfaBee]

You are confusing yourself with php and javascript.

The php will execute when the page is called.
The javascript will run when the button is clicked.
You need to create a seperate php script to do the deletions, search for AJAX and you should get some useful info.

[bradgrafelman]

Just to give another explanation...

PHP is a server-side language, while Javascript is a client-side language. In other words, the server processes all PHP code in the script and then sends the page to the user's browser. Thus, when your browser receives the source code for the page and renders the page (including the Javascript code), the PHP has already been executed.

[justinbentley]

HalfaBee wrote:

You are confusing yourself with php and javascript.

The php will execute when the page is called.
The javascript will run when the button is clicked.
You need to create a seperate php script to do the deletions, search for AJAX and you should get some useful info.

Thank you for your input.

Well, I see what you're saying. I thought I could solve this by making a user-defined function to handle the deletion, putting this function in an included file, and then calling the function when the button is clicked. This didn't work either; the unlink() still occurred on page load (I guess since the included file was preprocessed along with the rest of the page, like you're saying). I guess I haven't tried putting the include inside the button's action script, but something tells me this won't work either.

I guess it'll have to be ajax, since it appears there's no way to avoid the preprocessing.