Posted by one man army on 01/23/06 18:47

In article <6af7.43d4b96a.110f8@clunker.homenet>,
Jasen Betts <jasen@free.net.nz> wrote:

> On 2006-01-22, one man army <newsAT@screenlightDOT.com> wrote:
>
> > B- What I tried and How it Went Wrong
> >
> > I found by reading USENET and some web sites that there was a hack
> > that allowed a dynamic appending of a script element, which then
> > executes. By specifying that script element as Javascript, but calling
> > the file xxx.php, an arbitrary amount of JS/PHP can be executed, eg
> > Dynamically Loaded Scripts.
>
> yes.
>
> > I created a MySQL database with a table of Zip Codes, and the PHP
> > snippet which calls the database and executes a simple query. I used
> > phpMyAdmin to load the database and create the query string.
> >
> > In the Intro page I experimented with onSubmit() and the Action in the
> > form. I was having problems, so I added a button which simply called a
> > javascript function for testing purposes.
> >
> > I intended to call PHP to do the query, then read the result back in
> > Javascript. Since I could not find a way of passing a PHP var into
> > something Javascript can read, I set the content of a hidden field to
> > the number of items found, or the error msg on SQL error.
> >
> > This all worked. But in the next line of Javascript, upon returning
> > from the execution of the PHP via document.body.appendChild(
> > scriptElement)
>
> this is faulty thinking it is not a procedure call, in javascript you
> are downloading a file and appending, it to the document and executing
> it.
>
> > , the result of the query was not there yet. Apparently
> > there is some kind of event loop or somesuch that queued the execution
> > of the PHP. The result was there visibly in the browser window, and on
> > inspection with the Firefox DOM inspector.
>
> I'n not sure what you mean by event loop, yes the result it not there
> immediately but will arrive soon (depending on network etc...)
>
> AIUI the object has an onload property that can be used to activate code
> after it has loaded (and executed) basically this is like any other event
> handler....
>
> This means you can't reliably do a synchronous request, your script must run
> in two parts, one to request the result and a further part to handle the
> result.
>
> there's a different handler if it fails but I forget the name
>
> > This is my first Javascript program so I am more than willing to
> > change the design approach as appropriate. I appreciate thoughful
> > comments or suggestions, and do appreciate the answers I have read on
> > USENET that let me get as far as I have.
>
> basically you need to saw it in half and have one half making requests and
> the other half handling the responses.
>
> Bye.
> Jasen

thanks Jasen! thats what I am looking for.
BUT the book I am looking at says that the onload() handler for a SCRIPT
element is a Microsoft extension, not DOM spec. I need to work with
Firefox. ;-)

Can I do a ScriptElem.setAttribute() and attach an onload() handler?
(I'm reaching here...)

I am trying to check the DOM level 2 ref at
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113/core.html

but its really hard to read.

This is getting warmer.

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