Question

I’m trying to populate an element after an ajax call is made, but I’m not too sure whether this is the right way to do it and if it is, where I’m going wrong.

Here’s my code…

$(document).ready( function() {
    $("#edit_delete").click(function() {
        $.post('mySelect.php', $("#edit_delete").serialize(), function(result) {
            $('#message1').html(<?php echo $myTest; ?>);
            $('#message2').html(<?php echo $myOtherTest; ?>);
        });
    }   
});

mySelect.php :

<?php include '../../includes/connection.php' ?>
<?php
    $selected_user = $_POST["users"];
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $selected_user");
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
?>
<?php $myTest = $row['id']; ?>
<?php $myOtherTest = $row['name']; ?>
<?php mysql_close($con); ?>

(Let me know if you need more info and please feel free to edit my question so it makes sense!)

Answer 1

No, you should echo your data back to the client and then use it

<?php include '../../includes/connection.php' ?>
<?php
    $selected_user = $_POST["users"];
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $selected_user");
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
//prepare an array to return
$return = array();
$return['id'] = $row['id']; 
$return['name'] = $row['name']; 
//set the header
header('application/json');
//encode it and echo it back
echo json_encode($return);

And then

   $.post('mySelect.php', $("#edit_delete").serialize(), function(result) {
        $('#message1').html(result.id);
        $('#message2').html(result.name);
    });

You do this because you are making an asynchronous call to the server: you don’t reload your page, you just make a call and get some data back