AJAX Live Search

AJAX can be used to create more user-friendly and interactive searches.

AJAX Live Search

The following example will demonstrate a live search, where you get search results while you type.
Live search has many benefits compared to traditional searching:
  • 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 input field below:
The results in the example above are found in an XML file (links.xml). To make this example small and simple, only six results are available.

Example Explained - The HTML Page

When a user types a character in the input field above, the function "showResult()" is executed. The function is triggered by the "onkeyup" event:
<html>
<head>
<script>
function showResult(str) {
  if (str.length==0) { 
    document.getElementById("livesearch").innerHTML="";
    document.getElementById("livesearch").style.border="0px";
    return;
  }
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari    xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  } else {  // code for IE6, IE5    xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
  xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
    if (this.readyState==4 && this.status==200) {
      document.getElementById("livesearch").innerHTML=this.responseText;
      document.getElementById("livesearch").style.border="1px solid #A5ACB2";
    }
  }
  xmlhttp.open("
GET","livesearch.php?q="+str,true);
  xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<form>
<input type="text" size="30" onkeyup="showResult(this.value)">
<div id="livesearch"></div>
</form>

</body>
</html>
Source code explanation:
If the input field is empty (str.length==0), the function clears the content of the livesearch placeholder and exits the function.
If the input field is not empty, the showResult() function executes the following:
  • Create an XMLHttpRequest object
  • Create the function to be executed when the server response is ready
  • Send the request off to a file on the server
  • Notice that a parameter (q) is added to the URL (with the content of the input field)

The PHP File

The page on the server called by the JavaScript above is a PHP file called "livesearch.php".
The source code in "livesearch.php" searches an XML file for titles matching the search string and returns the result:
<?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>0if (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 was found// or to the correct valuesif ($hint=="") {
  $response="no suggestion";
else {
  $response=$hint;
}

//output the responseecho $response;
?>
If there is any text sent from the JavaScript (strlen($q) > 0), the following happens:
  • Load an XML file into a new XML DOM object
  • Loop through all <title> elements to find matches from the text sent from the JavaScript
  • Sets the correct url and title in 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"


Credit: www.w3schools.com
AJAX Live Search AJAX Live Search Reviewed by webmission on 17:57 Rating: 5

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