Think Different

Creating an Ajax Process Using PHP and Oracle by Larry Ullman Use the power of JavaScript to add seamless database interactions to your Web pages. Published February 2007 For some time now, Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), has been all the rage in the Web development world. Coming to the forefront with some of Google's features (Suggest, Maps, Gmail, and so on), Ajax performs server requests without the user having to submit a form or click on a link. In other words, the Web browser can make the server request, and handle the response, without the user doing anything or even knowing that this is happening. The immediacy that Ajax brings is not only a great convenience, but it can also be downright cool. In this recipe, I discuss all the code necessary to use Ajax to go from a simple Web page to a JavaScript function to an XMLHttpRequest to a PHP script and, finally, to an Oracle database. Along with the code, I do talk about the individual pieces with r...