Although most of our companies work is template based design,
end result is always unique and adapts to each client's individual needs. The process of merging a client's content and style with our templates creates an opportunity to challenge ourselves and once again put our web design skills to
test. Recently, I found myself in a situation where it was necessary to pass information in
form of GET data from a simple flash button to a server side scripting language- all without reloading
current page. A client was running several different flash animated banners ads via XML layer popup, underlining some of her most popular website products and online services. She needed a simple way to track
overall efficiency of her small ad campaign. Specifically, she needed to know which banners were being clicked on and which banners were simply annoying or inconsequential to her client base. She also needed to know which were
most popular browsers accessing these pages.
I'll try to describe what needed to happen with out getting too techie.
An XML layer popup would pop up, offering
end user with a two options. In Option A, one could click on
cute little popup. This would take them to wherever
popup was designed to take them. Option B was for
end user to close
popup, and that would simply hide
XML layer's visibility property. At first, it sounded easy. However, beyond
obvious functionality of options A and B, each option needed to open, write, and save to an external file all without refreshing
current page. After all,
last thing anyone wants to see after closing a popup is another page pop up.
Nevertheless server side scripting languages, like PHP, require a refresh of
page to pass information. Unlike JavaScript which handles its business on
client side of a client server system via your browser (the client), PHP scripts are server-side because they operate solely on
server; data is sent to via POST or GET The script is then parsed, and
new data is sent back to
browser if necessary.
Here's
solution. I created
following <iframe>.