How do you script a php page so that upon a user inserting a specific condition more form is displayed EG typing more in a textbox the page refreshes and shows more form for the user to fill in?

Answer 1

This can be done using AJAX calls, so it wouldn't strictly be with PHP. You would need to add some Javascript that handles the update events if the form fields that you want to watch. That Javascript would send a request back to the server and update accordingly with the result.

From a PHP point of view, I find it easiest to make the Javascript send a paramater in the URL specifying what it wants. You could then handle it with something like this:

if(array_key_exists('action', $_POST){

switch($_POST['action']){

case 'foo': echo 'bar'; break;

case 'hanky': echo 'panky'; break;

default: echo 'boo';

}

exit();

}

// the rest of the document here

If you're just getting started with AJAX queries, you would be best off using a commonly available library for it. I personally recommend jQuery, but there are other ones out there.