Xml http request

XML HTTP Request
• The XMLHttpRequest object is used to
exchange data with a server behind the
scenes. =>
it is possible to update parts of a web
page, without reloading the whole page.
• All modern browsers like
IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera
have a built-in XMLHttpRequest object.

Create an XMLHttpRequest Object
• Syntax for creating an XMLHttpRequest
object:
variable=new XMLHttpRequest();
• Old versions of Internet Explorer (IE5 and IE6)
uses an ActiveX Object:
variable=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");

• Example
• var xmlhttp;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}

Ajax - onreadystatechange Property
• Special property of XMLHttpRequest
• stores the function that will process the
response from the server.
• Example: Javascript Code:
// Create a function that will receive data sent from the server
ajaxRequest.onreadystatechange = function()
{ // We still need to write some code here }

Ajax - readyState Property
• another property of XMLHttpRequest
• The status of the server response is stored in
this.
• The response can be
 processing,
 downloading
 Completed.

• the readyState changes, whenever
onreadystatechange function executes.
• Example : Javascript Code:
• // Create a function that will receive data sent from the
server ajaxRequest.onreadystatechange =
function(){ if(ajaxRequest.readyState == 4){ //
Get the data from the server's response } }

Ajax - responseText Property
• To get the response from a server, use the
responseText or responseXML property of the
XMLHttpRequest object.
responseText => get the response data as a string
responseXML => get the response data as XML data
• If the response from the server is not XML,
use the responseText property.

Example<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function loadXMLDoc()
{
var xmlhttp;
}
else
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","ajax_info.txt",true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>

<body>
<div id="myDiv"><h2>Let AJAX change this
text</h2></div>
<button type="button"
onclick="loadXMLDoc()">Change
Content</button>
</body>
</html>

responseXML Property
• If the response from the server is XML, and we
have to parse it as an XML object, use the
responseXML Property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function loadXMLDoc()
{
var xmlhttp;
var txt,x,i;
}
else
}
{
{
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML;
txt="";
x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("ARTIST");
for (i=0;i<x.length;i++)
{
txt=txt + x[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br />";
}
document.getElementById("myDiv").innerHTML=txt;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","cd_catalog.xml",true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>

<body>
<h2>My CD Collection:</h2>
<div id="myDiv"></div>
<button type="button" onclick="loadXMLDoc()">Get my CD collection</button>
</body>
</html>
Output :
My CD Collection:
My CD Collection:
Bob Dylan
Bonnie Tyler
Dolly Parton
Gary Moore
Eros Ramazzotti
Bee Gees
Dr.Hook
Rod Stewart
Andrea Bocelli
Percy Sledge
Savage Rose
Get my CD collection

AJAX - Send a Request To a Server
• The XMLHttpRequest object is used to exchange data
with a server.
• Send a request with open() and send() methods.
Example:
xmlhttp.open("GET","ajax_info.txt",true);
xmlhttp.send();
Method Description
open(method,url,async) Specifies the type of request, the URL, and if
the request should be handled
asynchronously or not.
method: the type of request: GET or POST
url: the location of the file on the server
async: true (asynchronous) or false
(synchronous)
send(string) Sends the request off to the server.
string: Only used for POST requests

• After Sending the request,monitor the state of
the request using onreadystatechange property.
Example:
{
if(xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status == 200)
{
var resp = xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}

Or like this,
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = handleResponse;
function handleResponse(){
if(xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status
== 200){
//returned text from the PHP script
var response = xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}

• The readyState property holds the status of the
server’s response
• the possible values for the readyState property:
State Description
0 The request is not initialized
1 The request has been set up
2 The request has been sent
3 The request is in process
4 The request is complete
• And status is the status of the HTTP Request, like
500 Internal Server Error, 400 Bad Request, 401
Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found etc.
200 means no error.

AJAX - Server Response
• To get the response from a server, use the
responseText or responseXML property of the
XMLHttpRequest object.
• When a request to a server is sent.
• The onreadystatechange event is triggered
every time the readyState changes.
• The readyState property holds the status of
the XMLHttpRequest.

AJAX Advanced
AJAX ASP/PHP Example
• Example: How a web page can communicate
with a web server while a user type characters
in an input field:

<?php
// Fill up array with names
$a[]="Anna";
$a[]="Brittany";
$a[]="Cinderella";
$a[]="Diana";
$a[]="Eva";
$a[]="Fiona";
$a[]="Gunda";
$a[]="Hege";
$a[]="Inga";
$a[]="Johanna";
$a[]="Kitty";
$a[]="Linda";
$a[]="Nina";
$a[]="Ophelia";
$a[]="Petunia";
$a[]="Amanda";
$a[]="Raquel";
$a[]="Cindy";
$a[]="Doris";
$a[]="Eve";
$a[]="Evita";
$a[]="Sunniva";
$a[]="Tove";
$a[]="Unni";
$a[]="Violet";
$a[]="Liza";
$a[]="Elizabeth";
$a[]="Ellen";
$a[]="Wenche";
$a[]="Vicky";
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<count($a); $i++)
{
if
(strtolower($q)==strtolower(substr($a[$i],0,strlen($q
))))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint=$a[$i];
}
else
{
$hint=$hint." , ".$a[$i];
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;
?>

AJAX Database Example
• The AJAX example Which demonstrate how a
web page can fetch information from a
MySQL database using AJAX technology.
• This example consists of four elements:
a MySQL database
a simple HTML form
a JavaScript
a PHP page

The Database
Id FirstName Lastname Age Hometown Job
1 Rani Ajai 32 Kovai Professor
2 Ramya Bala 34 Karur Manager
3 Latha Mani 30 Trichy Teacher
4 Kani Mani 30 Kovai Bussiness

The HTML Form
The example contains a simple HTML form and a link to a JavaScript:
<html>
<head>
<script src="selectuser.js"></script> </head>
<body>
<form>
Select a User:
<select name="users" onchange="showUser(this.value)">
<option value="1“>Rani Ajai</option>
<option value="2“>Ramya Bala</option>
<option value="3“>Latha Mani</option>
<option value="4“>Kani Mani</option>
</select>
</form>
<p>
<div id="txtHint"><b>User info will be listed here.</b></div>
</p>
</body>
</html>

The JavaScript
This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "selectuser.js":
var xmlHttp;
function showUser(str) { xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlHttp==null) {
alert ("Browser does not support HTTP request"); return; }
var url="getuser.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlHttp.send(null); }
function stateChanged() {
if (xmlHttp.readyState==4 || xmlHttp.readyState=="complete") {
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText; } }
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; }

• Process of The showUser() Function
 If an item in the drop down box is selected the function executes the
following:
 Calls on the GetXmlHttpObject function to create an XMLHTTP object
 Defines the url (filename) to send to the server
 Adds a parameter (q) to the url with the content of the dropdown box
 Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
 Call stateChanged when a change is triggered
 Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given url.
 Sends an HTTP request to the server

• The PHP Page
• The server page called by the JavaScript, is a
simple PHP file called "getuser.php".
• The page is written in PHP and uses a MySQL
databse.
• The code runs a SQL query against a database
and returns the result as an HTML table:

<?php
$q=$_GET["q"];
$con = mysql_connect('localhost', ‘my_db', ‘xxx');
if (!$con)
{ die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error()); }
mysql_select_db("ajax_demo", $con);
$sql="SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = '".$q."'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Hometown</th>
<th>Job</th> </tr>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Age'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Hometown'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Job'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>"; }
echo "</table>";
mysql_close($con);
?>

• When the query is sent from the JavaScript to
the PHP page the following happens:
PHP opens a connection to a MySQL server
The "user" with the specified name is found
A table is created and the data is inserted and
sent to the "txtHint" placeholder
Output:
Id Firstname Lastname Age Hometow
n
Job
1 Rani Ajai 32 Kovai Professor

Xml http request

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