PHP and AJAX Live Search
AJAX can be used for a more user friendly and interactive
search.
AJAX Live Search
In the AJAX example below we will demonstrate a live search, where the server
gets search results while the user types.
Live search has many benefits compared to traditional searching:
- Matching results are shown as you type
- Results narrow as you continue typing
- If results become too narrow, remove characters to see a broader result
Search for a W3Schools page in the Box Below
This example consists of four pages:
- a simple HTML form
- a JavaScript
- a
PHP page
- an XML document
In this example the results are found in an XML document (links.xml). To make this
example small and simple, only eight results are available.
The HTML Form
This is the HTML page. It contains a simple HTML form, style for the form and
a link to a JavaScript:
<html>
<head>
<script src="livesearch.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
#livesearch
{
margin:0px;
width:194px;
}
#txt1
{
margin:0px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="text" id="txt1" size="30"
onkeyup="showResult(this.value)">
<div id="livesearch"></div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
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Example Explained - The HTML Form
As you can see, the HTML page above contains a simple HTML form with an input field called
"txt1".
The form works like this:
- An event is triggered when the user presses, and releases a key in the
input field
- When the event is triggered, a function called showResult() is executed.
- Below the form is a <div> called "livesearch". This is used as a placeholder for
the return data of the showResult() function.
The JavaScript
The JavaScript code is stored in "livesearch.js" and linked to the HTML
document:
var xmlHttp;
function showResult(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("livesearch").
innerHTML="";
document.getElementById("livesearch").
style.border="0px";
return;
}
xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject()
if (xmlHttp==null)
{
alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");
return;
}
var url="livesearch.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("livesearch").
innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText;
document.getElementById("livesearch").
style.border="1px solid #A5ACB2";
}
}
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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Example Explained
The GetXmlHttpObject function is the same as in the
PHP AJAX Suggest chapter.
The showResult() Function
This function executes every time a character is entered in the input field.
If there is no input in the text field (str.length == 0) the function sets
the return field to empty and removes any border around it.
However, if there is any input in the text field the function
executes the following:
- Defines the url (filename) to send to the server
- Adds a parameter (q) to the url with the content of the input field
- Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
- Calls on the GetXmlHttpObject function to create an XMLHTTP object, and tells the object to execute a function
called stateChanged when a change is triggered
- Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given url.
- Sends an HTTP request to the server
The stateChanged() Function
This function executes every time the state of the XMLHTTP
object changes.
When the state changes to 4 (or to "complete"), the content of the txtHint
placeholder is filled with the response text, and a border is set around the
return field.
The PHP Page
The server page called by the JavaScript code is a PHP file called "livesearch.php".
The code in the "livesearch.php" checks the XML document "links.xml".
This document contains titles and URL's of some pages on W3Schools.com.
The code searches the XML file for titles matching the search string and returns the result as HTML:
<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("links.xml");
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('link');
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all links from the xml file if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<($x->length); $i++)
{
$y=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('title');
$z=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('url');
if ($y->item(0)->nodeType==1)
{
//find a link matching the search text
if (stristr($y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue,$q))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint="<a href='" .
$z->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue .
"' target='_blank'>" .
$y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue . "</a>";
}
else
{
$hint=$hint . "<br /><a href='" .
$z->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue .
"' target='_blank'>" .
$y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue . "</a>";
}
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;
?>
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If there is any text sent from the JavaScript (strlen($q) > 0) the following
happens:
- PHP creates an XML DOM object of the "links.xml" file
- All "title" elements (nodetypes = 1) are looped through to find a name matching the one sent from the JavaScript
- The link containing the correct title is found and set as the
"$response" variable. If more than one match is found, all matches are added
to the variable
- If no matches are found the $response variable is set to "no suggestion"
- The $result variable is output and sent to the "livesearch" placeholder
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