Set stock to zero on "Add to Cart" click?

MicahD

Hi all, I'm desperately hoping a PHP Jedi can answer this for me...

Is there a way to link PHP script to a button click, so that the script is only activated when someone clicks the "Add to Cart" button for instance?

I ask because some of the items I sell are unique and I have only one of each. I have a mysql database setup and everything is scripted so that an individual item's inventory can be set to zero when it's purchased, which then removes the item from my website so that customers don't even see items that aren't available.

The problem is I can only get my PHP scripts to work on page loads, which means the inventory on my database gets set to zero before a customer clicks the "add to cart" button... so many items get removed from the site even though they haven't even been put in someone's cart yet.

I'd like for my PHP script to tell the database to set the inventory to zero only if someone actually clicks the "Add to Cart" button, not as soon as they get to the "add to cart" page as currently happens... possible? Or am I dreaming?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks!

Here's the script I currently have on the final page for these items:

<?
mysql_connect("localhost", "myusername_user", "G~#LM/iOKPwg") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("myusername_products") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_query("UPDATE watchstrap SET stock='0' WHERE id='1'")
or die(mysql_error());

?>

bradgrafelman

It isn't (directly) possible because PHP is a server-side language and what you're wanting is client-side behavior. If you want to call a PHP script when the button is pressed, either have the button be a submit button that submits a form or use AJAX to make a request in the background.

MicahD

bradgrafelman;10983214 wrote:
It isn't (directly) possible because PHP is a server-side language and what you're wanting is client-side behavior. If you want to call a PHP script when the button is pressed, either have the button be a submit button that submits a form or use AJAX to make a request in the background.

Thanks Brad, I appreciate your taking the time to answer.

I previously had everything set up via submit buttons as you suggested, but I recently changed my shopping cart and the new cart doesn't appear to let me pass information to it in the same way as the old one. I have 6 different options for each of these items, so I was hoping there was a simpler way to get all that data into the cart and also have inventory set to zero all with one click... It's never that easy though :bemused:

I'm not familiar with AJAX at all, I'll look into it. My site www.vintagerstraps.com is a pretty basic HTML site so I'll have to see if I can integrate AJAX into it or not, I'm really a noob at this kind of stuff, any pointers would be appreciated thanks.

NogDog

Just FYI, AJAX is simply an acronym for something that essentially means "use JavaScript to send an HTTP request to the server, where a script (i.e. PHP) can execute something and return results back to the JavaScript function in the browser page, which can then change what is displayed." 😉