The new way to write AJAX applications with PHP

Write Ajax applications in theses day are a common thing, the “day by day” of the web developer. Sometimes, especially for complex things, write ajax is not so easy, because you need to know the client side (javascript) and the server side. The dream of every php developer (at least mine dream ) is to write ajax without need to carry about the javascript code.

Even there is a lot of ajax framework that minimize what the php developer need to know about javascript, sometimes their very hard to use (a lot of php code).

I’ve wrote the Auto Ajax, which update only parts of pages when links are clicked using AJAX to avoid full page reloading. It uses some Javascript code to intercept the clicks on the current page links. The link clicks trigger AJAX POST requests to fetch the content to update specific page sections, instead of the whole page. If the browser does not support Javascript or AJAX requests, the clicks on the links will make the browser retrieve the whole page as usual.

Most of time, ajax is not for download pages only, they’re used to process forms, download a new fraction of the page, more interaction with the user, and others.

In the bus, coming from work to home, I was thinking (the best to think), trying to figuring out how to build an ajax framework, easy to use, powerful, and avoiding javascript as much as possible for the final user (the php developer).

The I had an idea(I don’t if it is the best), write ajax application defining an php class, with two or three methods. Then there was born the PHP-AJAX project The result of the idea is explained bellow:

For write a new ajax application, you need to extend the phpajax class, then override the method “main”, then write the code. Additionally you can override the method “input” and there define all the inputs to read from the client, and “loading” for do something while the ajax request is in process.

class example1 extends phpajax {
/**
* Input
*
* Read all what is needed from client.
*
*/
function input() {
aread(“input1″);
aread(“input2″);
}

function loading() {
aprint(‘loading’, ‘Loading…’);
ashow(‘loading’);
}

function main() {
/*
* The variables that was read in the method
* “input” is referenced here as local variable
* for made easy in the code time.
*/
$a = & $this->input1;
$b = & $this->input2;

/* Sleep awhile for show the loading */
sleep(10);

if ( !is_numeric($a) ) {
alert(“A ($a) must be numeric”);
ahide(“output1″);
/* stop ajax */
return;
}

if ( !is_numeric($b) ) {
alert(“A ($b) must be numeric”);
ahide(“output1″);
/* stop ajax */
return;
}

aprint(‘output1′, $a*$b);
ahide(“ashow”);

}
}

For calling the ajax application defined above, you need to call a javascript function with the same of the ajax-controller class.

<?php phpajax_js(“./”);?>
A = <input type=”text” name=”input1″ id=”input1″><br/>
B = <input type=”text” name=”input2″ id=”input2″><br/>
A * B = <span id=”output1″></span><br/>
<input type=”submit” value=”Click me” onclick=”example1()”>

PHP-AJAX is near of a release, the project will be hosted in PHPClasses because it offer a system with forums, and let me send emails to peoples who download the class advising of new changes.

BTW, you can see the PHP-AJAX source code on the project repository.

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