Question

I am wondering whether this is possible:

I have a page. The user clicks a link and that calls a PHP script. The PHP script returns true or false.

Depending on the true or false, I was hoping to be able to toggle a div.

I am wondering whether I need to do it the AJAX way? How do people usually accomplish this?
Seems pretty common.

I am using this YUI library already:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://yui.yahooapis.com/combo?2.8.2r1/build/reset-fonts-grids/reset-fonts-grids.css&2.8.2r1/build/base/base-min.css">

Answer 1

Yes, very easy, no need for Ajax. Here’s two ways:

Using straight PHP:

<?php

if($test) {
  echo "<div>Content...</div>";
}

?>

Or, using inline Javascript (in the PHP script), assuming you have a <div id='targetDiv'> in your HTML, and a $testVar in your PHP:

<script type='text/javascript'>
function toggle(testVar) { 
  if(testVar) { document.getElementById('targetDiv').style.display = ""; }
  else { document.getElementById('targetDiv').style.display = "none"; } 
}

window.onload = function() { toggle(<?php echo $testVar; ?>); } 
</script>

The second method can be easily altered to degrade gracefully.