passing id name on click using ajax to php

Question

i am using Ajax to make a filtered search system. I have three different tabs where users can search by names, by category and location. I am able to seacrh when user enters name in the search box(tab-1). In second tab, how can I use the same Ajax, so when user clicks a link, the id is passed in the ajax script to my php, and that id is passed as varibale in my mysql query.

First time with Ajax, any help would be highly appreciated.

AJAX script:

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("#search_results").slideUp();
    $("#button_find").click(function (event) {
        event.preventDefault();
        search_ajax_way();
    });
    $("#search_query").keyup(function (event) {
        event.preventDefault();
        search_ajax_way();
    });
});

function search_ajax_way() {
    $("#search_results").show();
    var search_this = $("#search_query").val();
    $.post("search.php", {
        searchit: search_this
    }, function (data) {
        $("#display_results").html(data);
    })
}

html:

<form id="searchform" method="post">
    <input id="search_query" name="search_query" placeholder="What You Are Looking For?"   
        size="50" type="text" />
    <input id="button_find" value="Search" type="submit" />
</form>
<div id="display_results">
</div>

<div class="tab">
    <input id="tab-2" name="tab-group-1" type="radio" />
    <label for="tab-2">Search by Category</label>
    <div class="content">
        <div id="searchbycategory">
            <div id="nav_1_a">      
                <ul>
                    <li><a href="#">All Categories</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#" id="dummy">Category-1</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Category-2</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Category-3</a></li>
                </ul>
                <div id="display_results">
                </div>
            </div>
            <!-- END nav_1_a -->
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div class="tab">
    <input id="tab-3" name="tab-group-1" type="radio" />
    <label for="tab-3">Search by location</label>
    <div class="content">
        <div id="searchbylocation">
            <div id="nav_1_a">      
                <ul>
                    <li><a href="#">All</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Location-1</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Location-2</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Location-3</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">Location-4</a></li>
                </ul>
            </div>

search.php:

<?php
$connection = mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'pwd');
$db = mysql_select_db('db', $connection);
$term = strip_tags(substr($_POST['searchit'],0, 100));
$term = mysql_escape_string($term); 
echo "Enter name to search";
else{
$sql = mysql_query("select col1,col2 from tab2 where tab2.somecolm like 
  '{$term}%'", $connection);

 echo "<ul>";
if (mysql_num_rows($sql)){
while($info = mysql_fetch_array($sql, MYSQL_ASSOC ) ) {
echo "<li>";
    echo "<a href=\"http://" . $info['col1'] . ".html\">" . $info['col2'] . "</a>";
    echo "</li>";
}

}else{
echo "No matches found!";
}

echo "</ul>";
}
?>

Answer 1

You say you want to pass the id when a link is clicked, but you don't have any code that handles link clicks. Add a click handler for links, and modify search_ajax_way() to accept an optional id for when links are clicked:

$("a").click(function (event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    search_ajax_way(this.id);
});

function search_ajax_way(clickedId) {
    $("#search_results").show();
    var postData = { searchit: $("#search_query").val() };
    if (clickedId) {
        postData.clickedId = clickedId;
    }
    $.post("search.php", postData, function (data) {
        $("#display_results").html(data);
    })
}

The id will be available in PHP as $_POST['clickedId']

Edit: Actually, I'd refactor to use search_ajax_way() as the event handler, rather than calling it from an anonymous event handler:

$("#button_find,a").click(search_ajax_way);
$("#search_query").keyup(search_ajax_way);

function search_ajax_way(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    $("#search_results").show();
    var postData = {
        searchit: $("#search_query").val(),
        clickedId: this.id
    };
    $.post("search.php", postData, function (data) {
        $("#display_results").html(data);
    })
}

Answer 2

Pass block id to search_ajax_way function:

$("#search_query").keyup(function(event){
    event.preventDefault();
    search_ajax_way(this.id);
});

Then pass block id in data param in ajax request:

function search_ajax_way(blockId){
   $("#search_results").show();
   var search_this=$("#search_query").val();
   $.post("search.php", {searchit : search_this, 'blockId': blockId}, function(data){
      $("#display_results").html(data);

   })
}

Now blockId will be availible in your php script as $_POST['blockId'].