I've searched around a lot of topics, but couldn't find the answer. My goal is to have a HTML hyperlink calling a Javascript AJAX post request on a PHP page to run a PHP function (optionally with any amount of arguments). A lot of topics solved this problem for defined functions (with a specific name). I want to generalize the AJAX post request function in order to pass the PHP function name to the AJAX request to call it, so I can define in Javascript what PHP function to call.
This is what I have, but it goes wrong at the PHP script...
The HTML:
<a onclick="call_php('php_function_name', ['arg_1', 'arg_2']);">call</a>
<p id="demo"></p>
The Javascript:
function call_php(fname, args) {
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = this.responseText;
}
};
xhttp.open('POST', 'includes/functions.php', true);
xhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-type', 'application/json');
xhttp.send(JSON.stringify({
'fname': fname,
'args': args
}));
}
At the Javascript I'm questioning the JSON.stringify() and setRequestHeader() if it is used correctly in this case.
The PHP, which should call a function in it's file:
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
//header('Content-Type: application/json');
$post = json_decode($_POST/*, true*/);
// DO SOMETHING TO CALL: fname(...args);
}
function php_function_name(arg_1, arg_2) {
// A FUNCTION...
}
At the PHP I'm questioning the header('Content-Type: application/json') since it's already defined at the Javascript. But the main question is: how to write the PHP code to call the PHP function? By the way: when I print echo $post it gives a warning: json_decode() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given...
The PHP Manual states that the $_POST super global variable only contains the post arguments for post data of type application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data.
An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST method when using application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data as the HTTP Content-Type in the request.
However, you are trying to send a post request with the body of type application/json.
To read a raw body in PHP you can do this:
$postdata = file_get_contents("php://input");
This will give you a string of the entire request body. You can then json_decode this string to get the desired JSON object.
As for the part of calling a function supplied in the request, the call_user_func_array will do the job fine. Whether or not that is something you should do is an entirely separate issue. From what I understand, you are edging on on the concept of a router and a controller.
I have writen a simple snippet of what I think you want to do:
<?php
switch ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']) {
case 'POST':
post_handler();
return;
case 'GET':
get_handler();
return;
default:
echo 'Not implemented';
return;
}
function post_handler() {
$raw_data = file_get_contents("php://input");
$req_body = json_decode($raw_data, TRUE);
call_user_func_array($req_body['function'], $req_body['args']);
}
function get_handler() {
echo 'This page left intentionally blank.';
}
function some_function($arg1, $arg2) {
echo $arg1.' '.$arg2;
}
?>
Comment json_decode and output your $_POST by calling print_r ($_POST); you should see your data structure, if it is a simple array with data keys and values then you don't have to decode it but if the array have a single column and it's value is your data then take it's key and use it to decode the content