Update data on a page without refreshing
I have a website where I need to update a status. Like for a flight, you are departing, cruise or landed. I want to be able to refresh the status without having my viewers to have and reload the whole page. I know there is a way to do it with AJAX and jQuery, but I don't have any understanding of how that works. I also don't want them to have and click a button. If anybody knows how that would be done I much appreciate it!
This is typically achieved with a technique called AJAX. This technique loads data asynchronously (in the background) so it can update your content without needing to reload the page.
The easiest way to implement AJAX is with the jQuery load() method. This method provides a simple way to load data asynchronous from a web server and place the returned HTML into the selected element. The basic syntax of this method is: $(selector).load(url, data, complete); where the arguments are:
-
selectorthe existing HTML element you want to load the data into -
urla string containing the URL to which the request is sent -
data(optional) a plain object or string that is sent to the server with the request -
complete(optional) a callback function that is executed when the request completes
The required URL parameter specifies the URL of the file you want to load. The optional data parameter allows you to specify data (i.e. key/value pairs) that is sent to the web server along with the request. The optional complete parameter can be used to reference a callback function. The callback is fired once for each selected element.
A visualisation:
A simple example of using load(), where we load data dynamically when a button is pressed:
DEMO
// no need to specify document ready
$(function(){
// optional: don't cache ajax to force the content to be fresh
$.ajaxSetup ({
cache: false
});
// specify loading spinner
var spinner = "<img src='http://i.imgur.com/pKopwXp.gif' alt='loading...' />";
// specify the server/url you want to load data from
var url = "http://fiddle.jshell.net/dvb0wpLs/show/";
// on click, load the data dynamically into the #result div
$("#loadbasic").click(function(){
$("#result").html(spinner).load(url);
});
});
If you don't want to use the jQuery library, you can also use plain Javascript. Loading content is slightly more difficult that way. Here is an example of how to do it with javascript only.
To learn more about AJAX, you can take a look at https://www.w3schools.com/xml/ajax_intro.asp
Suppose you want to display some live feed content (say livefeed.txt) on you web page without any page refresh then the following simplified example is for you.
In the below html file, the live data gets updated on the div element of id "liveData"
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Live Update</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="autoUpdate.js"></script>
</head>
<div id="liveData">
<p>Loading Data...</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Below autoUpdate.js reads the live data using XMLHttpRequest object and updates the html div element on every 1 second. I have given comments on most part of the code for better understanding.
autoUpdate.js
window.addEventListener('load', function()
{
var xhr = null;
getXmlHttpRequestObject = function()
{
if(!xhr)
{
// Create a new XMLHttpRequest object
xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
return xhr;
};
updateLiveData = function()
{
var now = new Date();
// Date string is appended as a query with live data
// for not to use the cached version
var url = 'livefeed.txt?' + now.getTime();
xhr = getXmlHttpRequestObject();
xhr.onreadystatechange = evenHandler;
// asynchronous requests
xhr.open("GET", url, true);
// Send the request over the network
xhr.send(null);
};
updateLiveData();
function evenHandler()
{
// Check response is ready or not
if(xhr.readyState == 4 && xhr.status == 200)
{
dataDiv = document.getElementById('liveData');
// Set current data text
dataDiv.innerHTML = xhr.responseText;
// Update the live data every 1 sec
setTimeout(updateLiveData(), 1000);
}
}
});
For testing purpose: Just write some thing in the livefeed.txt - You will get updated the same in index.html without any refresh.
livefeed.txt
Hello
World
blah..
blah..
Note: You need to run the above code on the web server (ex: http://localhost:1234/index.html) not as a client html file (ex: file:///C:/index.html).
You can read about jQuery Ajax from official jQuery Site: https://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/
If you don't want to use any click event then you can set timer for periodically update.
Below code may be help you just example.
function update() {
$.get("response.php", function(data) {
$("#some_div").html(data);
window.setTimeout(update, 10000);
});
}
Above function will call after every 10 seconds and get content from response.php and update in #some_div.