Run a method through AJAX, not a page

[mitty]

Hello all,

 

Is there a way that I can simply run a PHP method through AJAX?  If I have an object $user and I want to run $user->foo() as AJAX, I want to just say in jquery

 

$('#mydiv').load(foo());

 

Or something similar.  I know that I can say

 

$('#mydiv').load(foo.php); and make foo.php contain the line of code:

$user->foo()

 

But that runs into the problem of scalability... Since I'm on a different page, I have to reopen all of the required libraries and classes for that page.  If I could simply call the method, I wouldn't have to obtain $user from the session and reload all of my objects!

 

Does this make sense?  Is there a better solution?

[trq]

One solution I've used in the past is to create a simple front controller for all your server-side ajax handling and a simple function for client-side.

 

A very simplified version might look something like:

 

ajax.php

if (isset($_POST['controller'] && isset($_POST['action'])) {
    $controller = $_POST['controller'];
    $action = $_POST['action'];

    $c = new $controller;
    $c->$action();
}

 

Then in jQuery you just use something like....

 

function ajax(controller, action, callback) {
    $.ajax({
        url: "/ajax.php",
        method: 'post',
        data: {
            controller: controller,
            action: action
        },
        success: callback
    });
}

ajax('foo','bar');

 

Of course if you need more flexability you need to be able to expose more than just a simple function.