Question

Using xmlhttprequest post in PHP and Facebox

Asked by: matttoca

I'm trying to use Facebox in my website. I'm been successful in getting it to display the page i want in the modal window that Facebox creates. The problem is I can't submit the form, that the window loads, with the desired results. I looked online to figure out how I could send the form. Some one suggested using AJAX, so I looked into that. I think I got most of the code right I just don't know what's wrong with it. I'll post the code:

//link that starts it all  
<a href="email.php?user=doug" rel="facebox">EMAIL ME</a>   

//form that calls to the fucntion  
<? $user = $_GET['user']; ?>
<form method="post" onclick="emailForm();">
<input type="hidden" name="user" value="<? echo $user; ?>">
<input name="name" type="text"></td>
<input name="company" type="text"></td>
<input name="email" type="text"></td>
<textarea name="message" rows="5" wrap></textarea></td>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send"></td>
</form>   

//ajax script to connect the pages  
<script type="text/javascript">
var time_variable; 
function getXMLObject()  //XML OBJECT
{
   var xmlHttp = false;
   try {
     xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")  // For Old Microsoft Browsers
   }
   catch (e) {
     try {
       xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")  // For Microsoft IE 6.0+
     }
     catch (e2) {
       xmlHttp = false   // No Browser accepts the XMLHTTP Object then false
     }
   }
   if (!xmlHttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest != 'undefined') {
     xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();        //For Mozilla, Opera Browsers
   }
   return xmlHttp;  // Mandatory Statement returning the ajax object created
} 
var xmlhttp = new getXMLObject(); 
function emailForm() {
	var getdate = new Date();  //Used to prevent caching during ajax call
	
	if (xmlhttp) {
		var user = document.getElementByName("user");
		var name = document.getElementByName("name");
		var company = document.getElementByName("company");
		var email = document.getElementByName("email");
		var message = document.getElementByName("message");
		
		http.open("POST", "send.php", true);
		xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = handleServerResponse;
		xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
		xmlHttp.send("user=" + user.value + "&name=" + name.value + "&company=" + company.value + "&email=" + email.value + "&message=" + message.value); 
	} else {
		alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");
		return;
	}
} 
function handleServerResponse() {
   if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4) {
     if(xmlhttp.status == 200) {
       document.getElementById("message").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText; //Update the HTML Form element 
     }
     else {
        alert("Error during AJAX call. Please try again");
     }
   }
}
</script>   

//the send.php simplified
// Connects to your Database
include("dbinfo.inc.php");
mysql_connect("$server", $username, $password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database"); 
//get posted items from form
$user = $_POST['user'];
$name = $_POST['name'];
$company = $_POST['company'];
$theiremail = $_POST['email'];
$message = nl2br($_POST['message']); 
//look up email for user
$query = "SELECT email FROM board WHERE name = '$user'";
$results = mysql_query($query);
$youremail = mysql_fetch_array($results); 
//send email out
//code here uses the mail() fucntion

                                  
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:
65:
66:
67:
68:
69:
70:
71:
72:
73:
74:
75:
76:
77:
78:
79:
80:
81:
82:
83:
84:
85:
86:
87:
88:
89:
90:
91:

Select allOpen in new window

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-02 at 19:09:27ID24866008
Tags

AJAX

,

PHP

,

xmlhttprequest

Topics

Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX)

,

PHP and Databases

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
4

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Ajax modal popup
    I have an ajax modal popup with a submit button on it, Everything was working fine but now when i click on it it does not fire the server side code. If i double click on the button in design mode it takes me to the code but it appears that the button is not post backing and y...
  2. Turning $.post into $.ajax
    Hi all, This is very stupid but I cannot make it work. I'm trying to turn the following: $.post("search.php", { clientID: thisChannel.tblClient_id, channelID: thisChannel.tblChannel_Id, wordsToSearch: wordsSearchedfor }, function(data){ alert("...
  3. How to submit a form via AJAX + PHP
    Dear Experts, I need to use AJAX with PHP to submit a simple form into a database without refresh or redirect to a new page. The idea is that I have attach a HTML form that contain three text fields and then pass their values into a PHP file that validate the values first a...
  4. Submiting textarea through POST. ( tinyMCE textarea )
    Hi, Im using SimpleModal to load a modal window. (http://www.ericmmartin.com/projects/simplemodal/) Inside the window Im having a form with different elements. One of the form element is a textarea, which uses tinyMCE wysiwyg editor. When I submit my form through POST, all...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-11-05 at 07:46:15ID: 25750697

A. on your code you have:
document.getElementByName(name)

but it should be:
document.getElementsByName(name)

Notice the "s" before "ByName"

B. that function [document.getElementsByTagName()] returns a LIST/"array" of elements, NOT a single element, but the way you are using here:
var user = document.getElementByName("user");

makes me believe that you think you are assigning a reference to a single element but you are NOT. After that statement executes the variable "user" doe NOT hold a reference to the "user" input field. It holds a reference to an "array" that consists of one element. It is that one element within the array that IS the reference to the input field you need. So you need to change that to:
var user = document.getElementsByName("user")[0];

Personally, I prefer to use the document.getElementById() function since that DOES return a SINGLE element at most, but you will need to give your <input> elements a unique id:

C. You need to encode the VALUES of the data you are sending. Notice I wrote VALUES, not "field names". So this:
xmlHttp.send("user=" + user.value + "&name=" + name.value + "&company=" + company.value + "&email=" + email.value + "&message=" + message.value);

should actually be:
                xmlHttp.send("user=" + encodeURIComponent(user.value) + "&name=" + encodeURIComponent(name.value) + "&company=" + encodeURIComponent(company.value) + "&email=" + encodeURIComponent(email.value) + "&message=" + encodeURIComponent(message.value) );

D. BEFORE you invoke the send() method, you need to set some needed headers. You are CORRECTLY setting the Content-Type header, but you ALSO NEED the Content-Length Header for POST requests. The value of this Content-Length header should be the length of the data you are sending to the server. So if you take what is in the send() method above[C] and assign it to a variable, you can use the lenght of that string to set your header, and then use that same variable for the send() method:

...
                xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
var params="user=" + encodeURIComponent(user.value) + "&name=" + encodeURIComponent(name.value) + "&company=" + encodeURIComponent(company.value) + "&email=" + encodeURIComponent(email.value) + "&message=" + encodeURIComponent(message.value) ;
                xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Length', params.length);
                            xmlhttp.send(params);       
...
...

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-11-05 at 08:28:08ID: 25751104

One more thing:
>><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send"></td>
NEVER name anything (function or html element) "submit". It is a "reserved" method for the form object. Naming something else "submit" will likely cause a name collision that will be extremely difficult to debug. Since javascript IS case sensitive, you can (if you want) use name="Submit" [uppercase "S"], but do NOT use "submit".

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-11-05 at 10:27:55ID: 25752352

.

//link that starts it all  
<a href="email.php?user=doug" rel="facebox">EMAIL ME</a>    
//form that calls to the fucntion  
<? $user = $_GET['user']; ?>
<form method="post" onclick="emailForm();">
<input type="hidden" name="user" id="user" value="<? echo htmlentities($user,ENT_QUOTES); ?>">
<input name="name"  id="name" type="text"></td>
<input name="company"  id="company" type="text"></td>
<input name="email"  id="email" type="text"></td>
<textarea name="message" id="message" rows="5" wrap></textarea></td>
<input type="submit"  id="Submit" name="Submit" value="Send"></td>
</form>    
//ajax script to connect the pages  
<script type="text/javascript">
var time_variable; 
function getXMLObject()  //XML OBJECT
{
   var xmlHttp = false;
   try {
     xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")  // For Old Microsoft Browsers
   }
   catch (e) {
     try {
       xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")  // For Microsoft IE 6.0+
     }
     catch (e2) {
       xmlHttp = false   // No Browser accepts the XMLHTTP Object then false
     }
   }
   if (!xmlHttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest != 'undefined') {
     xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();        //For Mozilla, Opera Browsers
   }
   return xmlHttp;  // Mandatory Statement returning the ajax object created
} 
var xmlhttp = new getXMLObject(); 
function emailForm() {
        var getdate = (new Date()).valueOf();  //Used to prevent caching during ajax call
        
        if (xmlhttp) {
			//define comma-separated list of the fields you wish to send.
			//notice the split() method at the end. It is used to convert that
			//list into an array. So fields is actually an array
	   		var fields="user,name,company,email,message".split(",");
			
			//initialize a variable that will contain the data you will send
	   		var params=""; 
			//go through your field list and get the value for each field
			//once you extract the value encode it and assign it to your params
			//variable
			for( var i=0; i < fields.length; ++i)
			{
				params=fields[i] + "=" + encodeURIComponent( document.getElementById(fields[i]).value ) + "&";
			}
			//append the date value to prevent caching
              params+="nocache="+getdate
                http.open("POST", "send.php", true);
                xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = handleServerResponse;
                xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
                xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Length', params.length);			 
                xmlHttp.send(params ); 
        } else {
                alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");
                return;
        }
} 
function handleServerResponse() {
   if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4) {
     if(xmlhttp.status == 200) {
       document.getElementById("message").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText; //Update the HTML Form element 
     }
     else {
        alert("Error during AJAX call. Please try again");
     }
   }
}
</script>    
<?php
//the send.php simplified
// Connects to your Database
include("dbinfo.inc.php");
mysql_connect("$server", $username, $password) or die("Could not connect to the db: " . mysql_error() );
@mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database: " . mysql_error() ); 
//get posted items from form
$user = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['user']);
$name = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['name']);
$company = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['company']);
$theiremail = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['email']);
$message = nl2br(mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['message'])); 
//look up email for user
$query = "SELECT email FROM board WHERE name = '$user'";
$results = mysql_query($query);
$youremail = mysql_fetch_array($results); 
//send email out
//code here uses the mail() fucntion
?>

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:
65:
66:
67:
68:
69:
70:
71:
72:
73:
74:
75:
76:
77:
78:
79:
80:
81:
82:
83:
84:
85:
86:
87:
88:
89:
90:
91:
92:
93:
94:
95:
96:
97:
98:
99:

Select allOpen in new window

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...