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Classic ASP and Ajax/dhtml

Hi All,

Thanks in advance,

I have a classic ASP page, i wanted to create a ajax popup with a license agreement and if users accepts passed true boolean if denies then pass a false boolean back to original page. I also wanted so way of making sure that they scroll down and read the agreement. Is this possible with classic ASP and AJAX, or if you have any other suggestions for making this funtionaly.

Thanks

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timandkids

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dc_zard

ASKER

timandkids,

you are suggesting opening a new child window in javascript? that is what the link is describing? Can this be done in AJAX as well or you would recommend this method.

timandkids

If all you're doing is passing data from the one window to the other -- not to a server (like for storage in a database) then plain old javascript is probably the way to go. AJAX would be useful if you need to pass info back and forth from the server to the browser without refreshing (reseting or posting-back) the entire page. Everything you've described looks to me to be entirely client-side, so if it were me I would personally do it all in javascript.

I neglected to address making sure the user scrolls down in the box to verify that they have "read" the agreement... there appears to be a solution for this here, but I haven't tested it:
http://www.27seconds.com/kb/article_view.aspx?id=56

Please let me know if you are unable to make all of this work for your code, and if you're pulling your hair out with it I'll be happy to try to help more.

dc_zard

ASKER

Hi,

i would like to create a Timestamp in the database when user accepts the agreement, that is the only information that i would probably pass to the data base. I would assume then i would have to use AJAX.

My question? Is integration between AJAX and classic ASP possible? and it would be helpful if you have some material that i can learn from or if you can point me in the right direction.

Your help is appreciated.

timandkids

Yes -- AJAX and ASP are compatible. What you will do is set up your javascript function that is called when the user accepts the agreement and in that function create an AJAX call to an ASP page that will add the timestamp to the database. You can write an AJAX function to return info to you from the ASP page, like maybe a unique ID from the row in the database or something, or you can write an AJAX function that doesn't care about anything coming back. Additionally, depending on how many variables you want to send to the ASP page via AJAX, you may either append them all to the querystring and send them using GET, or POST them via an XML object. This probably all sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Here is some code you can look at (something similar to this would go in your pop-up window) and hopefully it will explain everything for you:

<head>
<script language="javascript">
function CreateXMLHttp()
{
 try
 {
  // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
  return new XMLHttpRequest();
 }
 catch (e)
 {
  // Internet Explorer
  try
  {
   return new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
  }
  catch (e)
  {
   try
   {
    return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
   }
   catch (e)
   {
    alert("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
    return null;
   }
  }
 }
}
 
 
 
// The following function is an AJAX call to your ASP page.
// Use it if you only have a few small variables or none at all.
function AJAXCallUsingGET()
{
 var xmlHttp = CreateXMLHttp();
 
 // The random variable is to keep the call from caching the previous request
 var day = new Date();
 var RandomID = day.getTime();
 
 // Tack on whatever querystring variables you like here
 var PagePath = "MyASPPage.asp?rand=" + RandomID + "&somevariable=12345";
 
 xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=function()
 {
  if(xmlHttp.readyState==4)
  {
   strText = xmlHttp.responseText;
   // If you want, you can do something with the
   // text (strText) that you pass back from the ASP page (using Response.Write) right here
 
   // This is also where you would want to put the call to the opener page.
  }
 }
 
 xmlHttp.open("GET",PagePath,true);
 xmlHttp.send(null);
}
 
 
 
// The following function is an AJAX call to your ASP page.
// Use it if you have a bunch of variables or some really big ones, like textarea content.
// I'm not exactly sure how to use ASP to get the data from the XML file you would post here,
// but I'm sure there's some way to do it, and it doesn't sound like you'll need to anyway since
// all you're doing is writing a timestamp. You probably don't need this function.
function AJAX CallUsingPOST()
{
 var VariableA = document.getElementById('txtVariableA').value;
 var SecondVariable = document.getElementById('txtSecondVariable').value;
 var VariableNumber3 = document.getElementById('txtVariableNumber3').value;
 
 // There are other ways to write the following, but this seems to work for all browsers
 var xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?><datarequest><request ';
 xml = xml + 'VariableA="' + VariableA + '" ';
 xml = xml + 'SecondVariable="' + SecondVariable + '" ';
 xml = xml + 'VariableNumber3="' + VariableNumber3 + '" ';
 xml = xml + '/></datarequest>';
 
 var xmlHttp = CreateXMLHttp();
 
 // The random variable is to keep the call from caching the previous request
 var day = new Date();
 var RandomID = day.getTime();
 
 // You can put querystring variables here if you like
 xmlHttp.open("POST", "MyASPPage.asp?rand=" + RandomID + "&somevariable=12345", false);
 xmlHttp.setRequestHeader('content-type', 'text/xml');
 xmlHttp.send(xml);
 
 if(xmlHttp.responseText != "")
 {
  strText = xmlHttp.responseText;
  // If you want, you can do something with the
  // text (strText) that you pass back from the ASP page right here
 
  // This is also where you would want to put the call to the opener page.
 }
 else
 {
  // Error Checking
 }
 
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
 <input type="button" value="I Accept" onclick="AJAXCallUsingGET();" />
</form>
</body>

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timandkids

There is a great AJAX tutorial here:
http://www.w3schools.com/Ajax/Default.Asp