Ajax

AJAX - Database Operations

AJAX - Database Operations

In this AJAX tutorial of database operations, we are going to interact with the database to fetch information using AJAX. To do this, first, we will perform MySQL operations to create a table. 

CREATE TABLE 'ajax_example' (
   'name' varchar(50) NOT NULL,
   'age' int(11) NOT NULL,
   'sex' varchar(1) NOT NULL,
   'wpm' int(11) NOT NULL,
   PRIMARY KEY  ('name')
) 

In this AJAX tutorial of database operations, we are going to interact with the database to fetch information using AJAX. To do this, first, we will perform MySQL operations to create a table. 

CREATE TABLE 'ajax_example' (

   'name' varchar(50) NOT NULL,

   'age' int(11) NOT NULL,

   'sex' varchar(1) NOT NULL,

   'wpm' int(11) NOT NULL,

   PRIMARY KEY  ('name')

Using the SQL statements, we will further include some data into the table -

INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Madonna', 160, 'f', 22);
INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Regina', 74, 'f', 34);
INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Franklin', 35, 'm', 47);
INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Jack', 24, 'm', 62);
INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Travis', 37, 'm', 10);
INSERT INTO 'ajax_example' VALUES ('Scott', 36, 'm', 80);

Create Client Side HTML file

Now we will create ajax.html which is the client side HTML file using this code -

<html>
   <body>
      <script language = "javascript" type = "text/javascript">
         <!-- 
         //Browser Support Code
         function ajaxFunction() {
            var ajaxRequest;  // The variable that makes Ajax possible!
            
            try {        
               // Opera 8.0+, Firefox, Safari
               ajaxRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
            } catch (e) {
               
               // Internet Explorer Browsers
               try {
                  ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
               } catch (e) {
                  
                  try {
                     ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
                  } catch (e) {
                     // Something went wrong
                     alert("Your browser broke!");
                     return false;
                  }
               }
            }
            
            // Create a function that will receive data
            // sent from the server and will update
            // div section in the same page.
            ajaxRequest.onreadystatechange = function() {
            
               if(ajaxRequest.readyState == 4) {
                  var ajaxDisplay = document.getElementById('ajaxDiv');
                  ajaxDisplay.innerHTML = ajaxRequest.responseText;
               }
            }
            
            // Now get the value from user and pass it to
            // server script.
            var age = document.getElementById('age').value;
            var wpm = document.getElementById('wpm').value;
            var sex = document.getElementById('sex').value;
            var queryString = "?age = " + age ;
            
            queryString +=  "&wpm = " + wpm + "&sex = " + sex;
            ajaxRequest.open("GET", "ajax-example.php" + queryString, true);
            ajaxRequest.send(null); 
         }
         //-->
      </script>

      <form name = 'myForm'>
         Max Age: <input type = 'text' id = 'age' /> <br />
         Max WPM: <input type = 'text' id = 'wpm' /> <br />
         Sex: 
         
         <select id = 'sex'>
            <option value = "m">m</option>
            <option value = "f">f</option>
         </select>
         
         <input type = 'button' onclick = 'ajaxFunction()' value = 'Query MySQL'/>
      </form>
      
      <div id = 'ajaxDiv'>Your result will display here</div>
   </body>
</html> 

The above code will display output result that will resemble this -

Note: Please note that this is a dummy screen

After we are done with the client side script, the next step is to create a server side script. We will use the following code in the ajax-example.php file -

<?php
$dbhost = "localhost";
$dbuser = "dbusername";
$dbpass = "dbpassword";
$dbname = "dbname";
	
//Connect to MySQL Server
mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
	
//Select Database
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());
	
// Retrieve data from Query String
$age = $_GET['age'];
$sex = $_GET['sex'];
$wpm = $_GET['wpm'];
	
// Escape User Input to help prevent SQL Injection
$age = mysql_real_escape_string($age);
$sex = mysql_real_escape_string($sex);
$wpm = mysql_real_escape_string($wpm);
	
//build query
$query = "SELECT * FROM ajax_example WHERE sex = '$sex'";

if(is_numeric($age))
   $query .= " AND age <= $age";

if(is_numeric($wpm))
   $query .= " AND wpm <= $wpm";
	
//Execute query
$qry_result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

//Build Result String
$display_string = "<table>";
$display_string .= "<tr>";
$display_string .= "<th>Name</th>";
$display_string .= "<th>Age</th>";
$display_string .= "<th>Sex</th>";
$display_string .= "<th>WPM</th>";
$display_string .= "</tr>";

// Insert a new row in the table for each person returned
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($qry_result)) {
   $display_string .= "<tr>";
   $display_string .= "<td>$row[name]</td>";
   $display_string .= "<td>$row[age]</td>";
   $display_string .= "<td>$row[sex]</td>";
   $display_string .= "<td>$row[wpm]</td>";
   $display_string .= "</tr>";
}

echo "Query: " . $query . "<br />";
$display_string .= "</table>";

echo $display_string;
?>