Question

how can i pass parameters from an html page(map.html) to a php(createxml.php) without having to open the php page? Im incorporating googlemaps in html page(map.html) so i want the users to enter data on a form on the html page which will be sent to php(createxml.php) which in turn will connect to mySQL DB and create an xml format of the response the html page uses this xml output to create positions on the map since it contains longitude and latitude.
I have used the following code in the heading of the php page(createxml), but it shows the contents of php file for a brief moment redirecting me to map.html
Thanks for your time, i can post all the code if needed.

      <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://localhost/map.html/"> 

Answer 1

It’s quite simple with AJAX, using jQuery you don’t have to know much about it 🙂
So simply import the latest jQuery Library.

Then you have your form:

<form id="my_form">
<input type="text" name="param1" />
<input type="text" name="param2" />
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="do_stuff" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

and somewhere beneath that, you just paste this tiny javascript-function, which handles the submit of the form:

<script>
  $('#my_form').submit(function(){
    var post_params = $('#my_form').serialize();
    $('#waiting').show();
    $.post('the_page_you_are_on.php', post_params, function(data) {
      $('#waiting').hide();
      return false;
    })
  });
</script>

(The element (div, p…) with the id “waiting” could e.g. contain one of those fancy ajax loading images, but is not neccessary! 🙂 If you want one to be shown, find one via google, set it as the background image of the #waiting-element and set its display to none (CSS)).

The function itself just calls the page you’re on and then you’ve got the form variables in your post-array, so the top of your page could look something like this:

<?php

if(isset($_POST['action'])) {
  switch($_POST['action']) {
    case 'do_stuff' :
      $param1 = $_POST['param1'];
      $param2 = $_POST['param2'];

      //do some DB-stuff etc.
    break;
  }
}

?>

I hope that helps!