Javascript &amp; PHP

Javascript & PHP

Anon

Hi,
What is the best way to pull a javascript variable into a php variable?

example:

I have a form button that when clicked, calls a color picker javascript applet. The user selects a color, clicks 'ok' and the javascript returns a hex color to a form input box in my PHP page. How do I pull that hex value into a PHP variable so I can pass it to my database?

I'm fairly new at this, and would appreciate any advice...

Thanks!

Anon

If javascript populates the text field with data then that's all you need. When the user sumbits that form you will have access to whatever data is in the test field, whether it got their by javascript populating it or the user populating it. Just make sure you put a "name" argument in the input tag of the text field. Like :
<input type=text name="usercolor">

Then when the form is submited, you'll be able to access the submitted color via the variable $usercolor.

Anon

What about pulling the variable before the form is submitted? I have multiple fields that I would ideally like to convert to PHP variables before the form is submitted...

Thanks again!

Anon

I'm not sure I understand. Or you don't understand. Anything you submit to a PHP script in a form will be a variable for that PHP script. Just reference the variable with the same name as the field you used in the form. Check out this webpage :

http://www.php.net/manual/language.variables.external.php

Hope that helps,
Matt

Anon

Thanks for the reply... Let me explain in greater detail.

The user enters a PHP driven page. They have the option to choose three colors to use in a webpage that my script generates on the fly. They click on "Choose Color One", it calls a javascript pop-up window with a color picker. When they choose their color, they click on OK in the javascript pop-up, and it sends the Hex code for that color to the PHP page into a form input field. (If you know of a better way, I'd love to know.) My goal is to have a preview of the color they select generate on that page with the corresponding color they select. (as a td background color, for instance, next to the form input box, so they can actually see the color rather than the hex code...) Ideally without redirecting or submitting the form. I don't know if that's possible or not... I got it to work using DHTML, but I don't want to write seperate code for IE and Netscape. Kind of tricky, I appreciate any help!!

Anon

I'm not sure I'm 100% clear on this still, but here's some thoughts.
I'm not sure why you feel the need to use a javascript popup. Maybe you don't have the area free to fit all the controls on one screen, but if you can, I'd advise doing it on one page.
It sounds like you want to update the page with PHP from data javascript populates text boxes with. There's no way (not really) to use PHP to update a page unless you reload the page.
I think your only real options are to use DHTML to allow the user to preview the colors, refresh the php script generated page, or make some a couple of frames, one for the input fields, and one for the color preview that gets refreshed.

Anon

Thanks for all your help.

Anon

No problem.
Let me know the URL when you get it finished? I'm kinda curious. And if you'd like I can take a look at it and may be able to give some more advice.

Anon

how do you install javascript ?

Anon

You don't have to. It's a part of web browsers. Go look for some tutorials on Javascript.

Anon

Justin,
Did you ever figure this out if its possible? I am needing the same thing. Here's my scenario that may help to explain the need.

I have a form with a field called site_id. When I type something in this field, I want to run an onChange javascript that passes the value to a php code to check to see if the site it up by pinging it and checking a database. It then will pop an alert box if it is down.

Example of what I would like to do:
$my_variable = document.Hotel.orig_site_id.value;

If there is a way to do this in php, I would like to hear it. It could be easily done if I was pressing a button but I want it automatic.

-Chris