Question

This is probably a newbie question, but i really need help.

I am creating a wishlist in an online store, and if the user is logged in, the wishlist item is going to be saved in the database and non logged in user’s wishlist will be saved via cookies and I am using AJAX for the wishlist functionality. Everything goes well except that the cookies are not updated in the first ajax request.

This is my first steps(ajax):

1. call ajax request to update wishlist
2. reload wishlist template based on the new cookie

the above steps doesnt update automatically the wishlist template $_COOKIE[] needs a page refresh.

This is my updated steps(ajax)

1. call ajax request to update wishlist
2. call another ajax request to reload wishlist template

the above code solves the problem, (the number 2 step is called to just refresh the $_cookie value.), but it takes two ajax requests to update the wishlist, which takes a little time to work. Im sure, this is not the best solution. I know this is a better solution for this.

Help pls 🙂

Thanks

Answer 1

Cookies can be set by javascript alone. As you are using ajax I think you can handle cookies fine without any page refresh.

Here is the logic you should implement.

1. Send an Ajax request to your PHP page.
2. • if you are logged in, PHP saves the data in database and return a status value 1.
   • Otherwise PHP returns a status value of 0. Means you were not logged in and couldn’t save it in Database.
   • While returning 0, PHP can populate $_COOKIE superglobal. It’ll set the cookies in browser when the request is finished.
3. On the callback event of your ajax request you check the status value. if its 0 just save the data in cookie. This cookie is available via document.cookie. This can be easily done by jquery

sample code using jQuery

// ajax.js
$.post("updatewishlist.php", 
{
    'wishlist_item':'wishlist_value'
},
function(json){
// callback function
    if(json.status==0){
        $.cookie('the_cookie', 'the_value', { expires: 7 });
    }
});

Here I have used jquery cookie plugin

// updatewishlist.php
<?php
if(user_logged_in()){
// sanitize input here
// update database with $_POST['wishlist_item']
$status = 1;
}else{
// update the cookie
// manipulate $_COOKIE super global
$status = 0;
}

// echoing json

echo json_encode(array('status' => $status));

?>