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PHP, AJAX, "Please wait", and a redirect

Folks,

I have page1.php that loads and displays an animated gif image to entertain people while the order they have placed is being processed.

I know there has to be a way to get AJAX to fire off the execution of the processorder.php file that does all of the complex order processing and posts the user order.

The last thing I need to accomplish, is to make the page1.php page redirect to the next php opage when the ajax request is complet. So here's my questions:

1) If there are no form elements on this page, can I call the processorder.php using AJAX in the <body> tag with an onload event?
2) Once it returns the results, I want he page to be immediately redirected to aother page. How can I do this, assuming that I can use the return from the AJAX call to indicate when it is complete.
3) Is it possible to remove the wait page (page1.php) from the browser's history so that the user does not hit the 'Back' button and start the process over inadvertently

I have seen a great example in asp.net at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/wait_page.aspx but can't figure out how to recreate this in javascript and AJAX calls via PHP scripts.

Let me know if anyone needs more details. I've been reading web sites on how to get this done for 2 days, and a lot of them come close, but the redirect is the stumper...

Thanks!

Greg Alexander

function process_order(redirect_page)
{
xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject()
if (xmlHttp==null){
alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request")
return
}
 
 
var url="processorder.php"
url=url+"?agetvariable="+agetvariable
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random()
xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedVerify
xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true)
xmlHttp.send(null)
}
function stateChangedVerify() 
{ 
if (xmlHttp.readyState==4 || xmlHttp.readyState=="complete")
 { 
 } 
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
var xmlHttp=null;
try
 {
 // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
 xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
 }
catch (e)
 {
 //Internet Explorer
 try
  {
  xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
  }
 catch (e)
  {
  xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
 }
return xmlHttp;
}

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Greg Alexander

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Greg Alexander

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manavsi

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tinklerb

ASKER

Folks,
Thanks for the suggestions. I have some time set aside this afternoon to try to put them into place, and will reply later today or forst thing tomorrow with the results. In the mean time, thanks for the help!
Brian

tinklerb

ASKER

Folks,
I have successfully got points one and two to work based on the recommendations. Now on to the third point I had above.
3) Is it possible to remove the wait page (page1.php) from the browser's history so that the user does not hit the 'Back' button and start the process over inadvertently
Once this is solved, this screen can go into production. Any ideas?

PHP, AJAX, &quot;Please wait&quot;, and a redirect

PHP, AJAX, "Please wait", and a redirect