Question

How can I send the value of PersonID into edit.php when user clicks on the <a> tag?

<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT PersonID, FirstName, LastName, Age FROM persons");
    echo "<table>";    
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td>Name: ".$row['FirstName']." ".$row['LastName'].", Age: ".$row['Age']."</td>";
        ?>
        <td>
            <a class="edit" name="<?php echo $row['PersonID'] ?>">Edit</a>
        </td>
        <?php
        echo "</tr>";
    }
    echo "</table>";
?>

Here’s the unfinish ajax,

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">        
        $("a.edit").click(function(){
            $(this).closest("tr").after("<div id=\"editform\"></div>");
            $.ajax({
                url: "edit.php",
                // -- WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEXT STEP? --
            });
        });
</script>

Thanks!

Answer 1

Quick and dirty way, you can get the value of PersonID from the tag itself, and then send it as part of the querystring:

  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">        
        $("a.edit").click(function(){
            $(this).closest("tr").after("<div id=\"editform\"></div>");
            var personid = $(this).attr("name");
            $.ajax({
                url: "edit.php?personID=" + personid,
                success : function () { /* Add success callback here */ }
            });
        });
  </script>

This is assuming you want to do it with a GET request. A cooler (and RESTful) way would be to do it with a POST request, and send the personID as a parameter in the request body:

 <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">        
            $("a.edit").click(function(){
                $(this).closest("tr").after("<div id=\"editform\"></div>");
                var personid = $(this).attr("name");
                $.ajax({
                    url: "edit.php,
                    type : "POST",
                    data : { personID : personid },
                    /* add callback etc here */ 
                });
            });
      </script>

In this case, you’d have to modify edit.php to fetch the personID parameter from the request, not from the querystring.