Best way to create dynamic content on a page?

No, unfortunately it would have to go to a new page since the design is someone different. Is PHP my only option? Thanks for the response

I like the local storage answer better than the one I gave.

If the user doesn't allow cookies I'm not sure if this would work. Dylan, is your worry about PHP that you want to keep this simple or is it that you don't know PHP and would have to learn? If the problem is you don't know PHP you could look into Node.js and Express. Here's a quick example of processing a form with Node.

Correct Patrick,

• If the user doesn't have javascript enabled, none of this works.
• If the user doesn't have cookies enabled, it won't work.
• If the user doesn't have a browser that supports local storage, it won't work.

You could use modernizr to detect for all 3 of the these issues, and than decide what to do in the event any of these tests fail. That would allow him to continue to use a client side javascript solution while having a graceful fallback if the client doesn't support one or more of these gottcha's. But now where getting into enough complication to start looking at what you recommended, Node.

It's a good suggestion looking at Node, if he's comfortable with JavaScript already. PHP also has a pretty low entry bar, although still has learning curve to it. It could be a good opportunity to learn it. I'd venture a guess, IMO that PHP has a lower entry bar than Node, but that's just me.

Alright, alright, alright. I guess i'll do PHP, haha.

I'm not completely foreign to PHP, I know how to create submission forums and use phpmyadmin etc.. I just typically focus on front end languages.

In PHP, which function or docs should I read on the best way to achieve this?

Thanks again, guys.

Haha sounds good! My first question is would you want this to go as a GET or POST request?

Hmm, I suppose it would be a GET request because it allows caching? So the users would be able to link the page afterwards, correct?

Basically the site I am working on has 3 tables/options on the home screen. Depending on the option they select, they are then brought to the second page which has pricing. The pricing values will change dependant on the option they selected in the first page.

If it helps clear it up, here is the staging link: http://kninetofive.likewater.ca

I think it depends. If he's new to Javascript and doesn't know it very well then you're absolutely right and PHP would be easier. However if he's fairly comfortable with Javascript I think it would be easier to learn a new framework than an entirely new language. The other place PHP has a major advantage is many web servers come with it set up which is unlikely with Node. You can pretty easily submit a form to itself and have the logic on that page change the contents.

Dylan, I think GET is the right choice. I think you should be able to just submit the choice via get to the second page, where you read the get value and show your prices. I might try to have those 3 boxes mechanically be radio inputs, since that most closely gives you the behavior you want. You can have an event listener to submit the form when one is clicked.

Than on the second page, read the get value, and inject your prices via PHP when the html is sent to the browser. Check out some of the PHP courses here, and you'll learn the basics.

Patrick, I agree there. Setting up a Node host might be the most difficult part. But with services like Heroku who offer Node, even that bar is low now, which is good for guys like me.

For both of you, looking at that link, I can't help but think this shouldn't be one page, not two. I don' know, thoughts? The form submit seems unnecessary to load another page to just show prices. You could even manipulate your urls if you wanted with the pushState() method, getting the same effect without a form submit and page reload.

Or just simply swapping text nodes with jQuery.

I misunderstood the initial post. I thought you meant they were check boxes. Looking at that I think you're going to have trouble even with PHP. The buttons are just CSS styling of an <a> element. I haven't worked with PHP in quite a while so Kevin may be able to jump in here and provide a correction, but I don't think you can get PHP POST or GET data from elements styled into buttons. I think those would need to be converted to submit buttons (which you can style in the exact same way with CSS).

"For both of you, looking at that link, I can't help but think this shouldn't be one page, not two. I don' know, thoughts? The form submit seems unnecessary to load another page to just show prices. You could even manipulate your urls if you wanted with the pushState() method, getting the same effect without a form submit and page reload."

Are you suggesting to not trigger any more reloads and possibly do this with AJAX/jQuery instead? Would that be a better option? After this I am going to be building a small calendar for the user to select the dates and click a 'book now' button.

I'm assuming the calendar would be on another page and require another load (might be too heavy to have it all on one page?) But I never thought of using ajax for that before for fear of the code/page being too bloated but now that I'm thinking of it more, ajax might prove a better experience for the user.

I tend to gravitate towards running my own server. Heroku isn't a bad option but a lot of the add-ons cost extra money (like Postgres) where if you have your own server you can just add stuff. Places like Digital Ocean have one click installs for various frameworks like Node but it involves knowing what you're doing once it's all set up.

I agree with your last statement. To me it doesn't make sense for this website to have a second page. Because the boxes stay in the same spot and change to pricing this would be an ideal use of AJAX to reload the boxes with the content that would have been displayed on the second page.

Awesome! Thanks for the response, Chris.

Is this the article you are referring to? – https://css-tricks.com/snippets/javascript/get-url-and-url-parts-in-javascript/

Would you say the JS way is less of a best practice or has any downsides compared to PHP? If I were to use PHP would it just be a PHP Include or which function would be best?

I am just trying to keep it light and simple.