How to implement AJAX calls

[Anneke]

I am a newbie to PrestaShop. I read the documentation but there are many questions left.

 

I created a module which shows a user form. I want to add an AJAX call.

 

When the user starts typing a name, the name will be looked up in the database and matches will be returned as JSON, The user form then shows possible matches, so the user can choose a matched one or continue typing.

 

My Frontcontroller only shows a TPL file and in the TPL file I added the AJAX code. However I am not sure if the AJAX call should call the same frontcontroller and if so, how this frontcontroller should be able to get the entered data or return the database data. Or maybe this call should go to a different class that would handle the search and data-exchange.

 

Please help.

Anneke

[rocky]

What I usually do is add a line like the following to the getContent() function:

        if (Tools::getValue('action') == 'updateBlocksPosition' && Tools::getValue('ajax') == 1) {
            $this->action = 'updateBlocksPosition';
        }

and then create a function like the following:

    public function ajaxProcessUpdateBlocksPosition()
    {
        if (Tools::getValue('blocks')) {
            $blocks = Tools::getValue('blocks');

            // Perform query and encode results as JSON here
        }
    }

Change updateBlockPositions to your AJAX call's action.