Execute php function on user event without using javascript

Question

I assume the answer is: "it is not possible because php is server language not client language", but I would like someone more expert than me to state this and eventually list all possible workarounds...

Question: is it (at all) possible to have a php function executed (only) when the user "clicks" or performs some other kind of action (e.g. mouse-over) in an html page without using any javascript?

(P.S. As a workaround I considered to access an intermediate page containing the php code to be executed when the client action occurs and then redirect as needed but this is not straightforward as far as passing the results of the php code goes.)

Moe · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-03 10:25:00Z

In general no. The only workaround regarding mouse-overs I can possibly think of would be a small 1x1 transparent background image that is generated by a PHP script and that is only shown if a user hovers over a certain element.

html:

<div id="mouseover_php">execute php</div>

css:

#mouseover_php:hover {
    background-image:url(/path/to/php-script)
}

php:

<?php
   // your code
   // set http headers to correct content type and to disable caching
   // output 1x1 pixel transparent image

But as all modern browsers use pre-fetching and caching (although this can be influenced by setting the Cache Control header) I certainly would not rely on this as an unquestionable indicator for a mouse-over event. So this would be, if anything, a very unclean hack.

Regarding clicks: Here the only possible way is to load an intermediate page, just as you proposed it. As far as I am concerned there is no way to achieve this without AJAX.

Corbin · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-03 10:13:09Z

1

This is not possible without making a new request.

You must use a link to send the user to a new page (or the same page -- anything as long as a new request is made), or you must use something like AJAX.

There is actually one very hack-ish way I can think of. It's not exactly pretty, but it should work.

You could use an iframe as the target for a link. Basically instead of a link opening in the same or a new window, it would open in a hidden iframe.

Untested, but in theory:

<iframe name="testframe" id="testframe"></iframe>
<a href="http://google.com" target="testframe">Test</a>

Edit: After some rough testing, it looks like chrome will not obey this. IE9 will to some extent though, it seems.

edited Jun 3, 2012 at 10:13

answered Jun 3, 2012 at 10:03

Corbin

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