Send a post with PHP + AJAX

Context

I'm working on a project that I'd like to make more dynamic with PHP + AJAX. I'm using jQuery for the AJAX part because I totally suck in Javascript, and anyway it seems to be worth something. I reached a point where my application needs to use a form to send a post, and I want to use an ajax call to perform this action. In the page I'd like to send the post, there is also a list of the most recent 15 posts submitted.

First question: Should I just forget about it and use just PHP?

The action

The user writes something in the <textarea></textarea> and clicks on a <a id="myPostSubmit">Submit</a> that is the handler that I'll manage on the jQuery script with something like $("#myPostSubmit").live('click', function() { /* here i make the ajax call */ });. If the post is successfully submitted we are going to do something (I'll talk about it in the next section), either we will alert the user using my showAlert(text) function, that shows a black box for 4 seconds with the text in it.

Second question: Should I manage the click event in any other ways? Should I create a function, such as sendpost(post) and attach it into the HTML onclick="" event?

If the post is successfully sent

I'd open a discussion about 2 options:

1. We refresh the page [not actually loading the entire page but making another ajax call that retrieves the posts lists and makes disappear the old one, load the PHP file to retrieve t开发者_开发知识库he new posts (including the one we just sent), and then make the post list appear]. Pro: 1) We are sure that what the user is reading after the post list is loaded is the real post sent. So it actually double checks the action. 2) We load also some possible posts sent in the mean while. Cons: 1) We have to create a PHP file that gets the post list template, slicing the template of that page in 2 files. 2) It doesn't really seems that smooth to me.

2. We just use Javascript to get the post template, add it to the list. Pro: 1) We make it really smooth, without reloading the entire page. 2) We don't need of any PHP file to reload the page. We just use Javascript (jQuery). Cons: 1) How do we get the post html template to add it to the list? 2) How do we get the user (logged) informations without PHP?

Third question: Is it better the 1st or the 2nd solution? Would you provide a even better 3rd solution?

The PHP page

The PHP page that will receive this AJAX call is : ?p=action&a=sendpost. The page require $_POST['myMessage'] to be set and not empty and nothing else. The page itself will get all the user infos from the cookies and will manage to perform the needed query.

The application

It is divided in 3 parts: App, Template, Library. Basically each page of the application has its own .app.php and .tpl.php file.

1. The .app.php file manages the building of the basis of the page, using classes and other stuff from the library. In our case it retrieves datas from the database and put them into variable.
2. The Template is called at the end of the .app.php file. The .app.php file send to the template the retrieved data and the .tpl.php file outputs them.
3. The library is used to contain the classes and functions we need in the application file.

Fourth question: Is this a good way of manage my web application?

Edit: What about returning the alert message to the user?

I read about an option, inside $.ajax() that will manage the response on success or in error. The documentation about it is very simple and I didn't get it.

Fifth question: How should I return (from the PHP file) the error or the success?

First question: Should i just forget about it and use just PHP?

Well, you application will relay on JavaScript if you use ajax, this days i think it just fine ;)

Second question: Should i manage the click event in any other ways? Should i create a function, such as sendpost(post) and attach it into the HTML onclick="" event?

Create a function and bind onclick. Code will be more readable ;)

Third question: Is it better the 1st or the 2nd solution? Would you provide a even better 3rd solution?

My solution: ajax submit the form and on callback insert new comment in to the list or display error message if user can't comment. Check jQuery serilize() for submitting forms data with ajax.

Fourth question: Is this a good way of manage my web application?

It's just fine ;) When you application get's bigger you will have to redesign it, but don't do it know, do it when current solution becomes to hard to work with. Read some good book on building MVC framework. And on programming patterns in general.

You seem to be on the right track with everything. There are lot of opinions called "best practices" about how to exactly attach event handlers, how to reload the data on the page and how to organize your application, etc, but I personally would rather build more software instead of worrying about details like that. The details will come to you eventually.

I personally find that updating whole chunks of server-side-rendered HTML on the page is more robust solution, but I have seen people getting excellent results with templates.