Nowadays, any app should use AJAX because it is fast and prevents annoying page reloading. In this guide, I'll show you how I handle AJAX requests in my PHP apps.
Step 1 - Folder/File Structure
Organizing is a significant part of any application. In PHP applications, it is a good idea to create separate files for each AJAX request.
/
/ajax
...ajax handler files
If you need it to be more organized, you can group your AJAX files.
/
/ajax
/posts
...posts files
/comments
...comments files
/misc
...misc files
Step 2 - PHP + AJAX
For AJAX, we can use any data structures. But, I prefer JSON.
Basically, each file will handle one task. That task can be either successful or unsuccessful. In the JSON response of AJAX requests, the most important key is status, which will have a Boolean value.
Let's create the Handler class. I normally save class files in the /src folder.
src/Ajax.php
<?php
class Ajax {
static function setJSONHeader() {
header('Content-type', 'application/json');
}
static function success($returnArray = null) {
$array = array (
'status' => true
);
if ($returnArray !== null) {
$array = array_merge($returnArray, $array);
}
self::setJSONHeader();
exit(json_encode($array));
}
static function error($errorMessage = '', $errorCode = 0) {
self::setJSONHeader();
exit(json_encode(array(
'status' => false,
'error' => $errorMessage,
'errorCode' => $errorCode
)));
}
}
This class includes three static methods. Ajax::success($array) can be called when the request is successful. $array can contain more data to be sent to the client-side. Ajax::error() can be called when an error occurs.
Step 3 - All together
Let's combine all of these methods. Assume that you have an app that allows users to create posts. Here's an example AJAX request from jQuery.
function createPost(title, text) {
$.ajax({
method: "POST",
url: "/ajax/create-post.php",
data: {
title, text // es6
},
dataType: "json", // gonna receive JSON
success: (json) => {
if (json.status === true) {
// enjoy!
location.href = `/${json.slug}`;
} else {
// oopz :(
alert(json.error);
}
}
})
}
create-post.php - PHP AJAX Handler
<?php
include_once 'autoload.php'; // your autoloader
// make sure you also do trim() and htmlspecialchars()
$title = $_POST['title'] ?? '';
$text = $_POST['text'] ?? '';
if (empty($title))
Ajax::error('Title cannot be empty');
if (empty($text))
Ajax::error('Text cannot be empty');
$slug = createSlug($title); // something to be sent to the client side
// add to database (thingengineer/mysqli-database-class)
$added = $mysqli -> insert('posts', array(
'title' => $title,
'text' => $text,
'slug' => $slug
));
if (!$added)
Ajax::error('Something went wrong on creating the post');
Ajax::success(array(
'slug' => $slug
));
In this way, you can write AJAX handlers in PHP with a little amount of code. The trick is to use OOP to handle the statuses and data.
Good luck with your next PHP + AJAX application.
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