Question

I have a small web app built in PHP and Javascript/jQuery.

The app involves a random number generator and when it lands on say number 4, the user wins.

However the prize is pulled from a database and after 5 prizes a day are won. the user is unable to win.

Once a user wins, the prize is updated as ‘queued’ until they have filled out a form and claimed the prize. It is then taken out of available prizes.

This all works fine if the user refreshes the app. However if a user begins to play the app and another user wins then the app wont update unless its refreshed as PHP is server side.

I have a javascript function OnStart. So if i could perform the SQL query here it would happen everytime the user throws the die.

How can I run a php statement from a jquery function?

If it helps here is the statement:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM prizes WHERE dateavailable='$todayDate' AND queue='0' AND won='0' ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT 1");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

{   
    $prize = $row['prize'];
}

Thanks

EDIT:

So could I possibly use something like this with the php in a seperate file.

<script type="text/javascript">
  function performAjaxSubmission() {
    $.ajax({
      url: 'file.php',
      method: 'POST',
      data: {
        action: 'save',
        arg1: 'val1',
        arg2: 'val2'
      },
      success: function() {
        alert("success!");
      }
    });
    return false; // <--- important, prevents the link's href (hash in this example) from executing.
  }

  jQuery(document).ready(function() {
    $("#linkToClick").click(performAjaxSubmission);
  });
</script>

Answer 1

Save the posted code in a php file, let’s call it prizes_available.php. This file should also output whether prizes are available or not, so create the result object and assign the value to it:

$result = new stdclass();
$result->prizes_available = $prize != null;
echo json_encode($result);

If you call this script in browser, it will output something like this:

{ prizess_available: true }

Using jQuery, you can easily convert this string into an object again:

$.getJSON('prizes_available.php', function(result)  {
    if (!result.prizes_available) {
        alert('no more prizes');
    }
});