Passing Ajax Data To Php With Javascript

[thinkus]

Hi Larry,
 
Great fan of you books! I've recently gone over Chapter 11 and I had a question regarding passing data from JSON to PHP using the code provided in the book for test.js (434-436).  I've modified the script to use JSON and that works beautifully.  I'd like to know if there is a clean JS solution to pass data to PHP without relying on jQuery.ajax({ data })?  
 
I've looked everywhere for a solution but the solution seems easily resolved with jQuery, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
 
Here is the code I've used as dictated in the book:

 

window.onload = function() {
	'use strict';
	var ajax = getXMLHttpRequestObject();
	
	ajax.onreadystatechange = function() {
		if ( ajax.readyState == 4 ) {
			if ( (ajax.status >= 200 && ajax.status < 300) || (ajax.status == 304) ) {
				var data = JSON.parse(ajax.responseText);
				var file = '';
				file += 'Original: ' + data['org'].file + '<br>';
				file += 'Processed: ' + data['pre'].file + '<br>';
				document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = file;	
			} else {
				document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = 'Error: ' + ajax.statusText;
			}
		}
	};
	
	document.getElementById('btn').onclick = function() {
		ajax.open('POST', 'resources/test.json', true);
		ajax.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
		ajax.send(null);
	};
};

 

I would like to be able to echo out the data['org'].file and data['pre'].file in PHP after the request is made.  Any guidance or suggesting would be appreciated.

[HartleySan]

thinkus, welcome to the forums.

 

I may be misunderstanding your question, but my understanding is that you want to send a JSON request to a PHP script without using jQuery, right?

 

Probably the easiest solution would be to use the JSON.stringify method, which is the compliment of the JSON.parse method; it turns a JS object into a string.

By doing so, you can send the "stringified" JS object to a PHP script as a string and process it as necessary. (You would then likely want to use the json_decode function on the PHP side to turn the string back into an object for easy processing.)

 

If you go the above route, then all you need to do is make a standard PHP script request using Ajax. You can then receive the stringified JS object on the PHP side using the $_GET superglobal. For example, you could make the following Ajax request:

document.getElementById('btn').onclick = function() {

  ajax.open('GET', 'resources/PHP-script-name.php?json_string=' + encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(test.json)), true);

  ajax.send(null);

};

 

Note that for this example, I used the GET method, but you can just as easily switch it to use the POST method (with some minor changes to the code).

If you use the above code, then your JSON string will be accessible on the PHP through the following variable:

$_GET['json_string']

 

The other option would be to pick out the necessary data from the JS object, and send them as separate pieces of data.

Just as an example, if test.json contained "id" and "name" properties, then you might do the following instead:

document.getElementById('btn').onclick = function() {

  ajax.open('GET', 'resources/PHP-script-name.php?id=' + encodeURIComponent(test.json.id) + '&name=' + encodeURIComponent(test.json.name), true);

  ajax.send(null);

};

 

Anyway, I suppose my point after that long post is that there are any number of solutions.

It really just depends how you want to do things and which way fits your specific situation best.

Does that answer your question?