Question

First and foremost thank you for checking out my problem, and for any help you may give!

Okay, so like the title says I’m in need of calling a php function from my index page, which adds a new record in my database as a vote, using JQuery Ajax. This function will return one integer, which will then be printed inside the form button in which it was called from.

Anyone have an idea on how I would accomplish this? Any guidance is appreciated!

Edit:

So if I'm using a template object I can just call the
function using ajax and it will return the output? 
What would I use as the URL? index.php?  

Such as...
function DoVote() {
    $.ajax({
    type:'POST',
    url: 'index.php',
    success: function(data) {
    $('#voteText').html(data);
 }
});

And the form action attribute is posted I’m guessing?

Answer 1

Yes, create a separate PHP file that calls that function and echos the output. Then load that php file with an AJAX request.

Because PHP is a server side language and jQuery (JavaScript) is Client side you can’t directly call a PHP function with it, the most you can do is load a file. However, if the file has something like <?php echo($object->function()); ?> you can load the file, in essence calling the function.

I’m not sure that (your addition) is correct.

In an arbitrary file you have a PHP function:

<?php
    // Called "otherfile.php"

    // Function you're trying to call
    function doSomething($obj)
    {
        $ret = $obj + 5;

        return($ret);
    }
?>

And you have a file (call it ajaxcall.php) that you will load with that AJAX call.

<?php
    include("otherfile.php");   // Make the file available, be aware that if that file 
                                // outputs anything (i.e. not wrapped in a function) it
                                // may be executed
    // Grab the POST data from the AJAX request
    $obj = $_POST['obj']; 

    echo($doSomething());
?>