Want to avoid repeating same code in a Polling script...

Hi,

I was trying to get Ajax Poller script to work on my site. I found the original script at http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/index.html?whichScript=ajax-poller

The script has been uploaded at site www.informationpile.com

Now, the problem is, whenever a new poll is created, I have to manually edit the PHP file and add code to it.

Example:

   <?
        $pollerId = 3;    // Id of poller
        ?>

Code (markup):

where the Id of Poller has to be manually edited corresponding to the ID of new poll.

After this, the following code has to be used verbatim.

 
        <!-- START OF POLLER -->
        <div class="poller">
        
            <div class="poller_question" id="poller_question<? echo $pollerId; ?>">
            <?            
            
            
            // Retreving poll from database
            $res = mysql_query("select * from poller where ID='$pollerId'");    
            if($inf = mysql_fetch_array($res)){
                echo "<p class=\"pollerTitle\">".$inf["pollerTitle"]."</p>";    // Output poller title
                
                $resOptions = mysql_query("select * from poller_option where pollerID='$pollerId' order by pollerOrder") or die(mysql_error());    // Find poll options, i.e. radio buttons
                while($infOptions = mysql_fetch_array($resOptions)){
                    if($infOptions["defaultChecked"])$checked=" checked"; else $checked = "";
                    echo "<p class=\"pollerOption\"><input$checked type=\"radio\" value=\"".$infOptions["ID"]."\" name=\"vote[".$inf["ID"]."]\" id=\"pollerOption".$infOptions["ID"]."\"><label for=\"pollerOption".$infOptions["ID"]."\" id=\"optionLabel".$infOptions["ID"]."\">".$infOptions["optionText"]."</label></p>";    
            
                }
            }            
            ?>            
            <a href="#" onclick="castMyVote(<? echo $pollerId; ?>,document.forms[0])"><img src="images/vote_button.gif"></a>
            </div>
            <div class="poller_waitMessage" id="poller_waitMessage<? echo $pollerId; ?>">
                Getting poll results. Please wait...
            </div>
            <div class="poller_results" id="poller_results<? echo $pollerId; ?>">
            <!-- This div will be filled from Ajax, so leave it empty --></div>
        </div>
        <!-- END OF POLLER -->

Code (markup):

Is there any way I could avoid repeating the code and just add a line like:

<script language="javascript" src="pollscript.js"></script>

Code (markup):

?

Is there any way to avoid repeating the same piece code to reduce the bandwidth usage?

I'd appreciate any help.

 

I don't think you'd be able to reduce the bandwidth usage much (if at all). The code that you included is basic PHP code for spitting out the HTML needed to render the poll. No matter what you do, you'll need that HTML for the poll to show up.

If you only ever want to display the most recent poll, you can change your MySQL queries to something like:

select * from poller order by id desc limit 1

Code (markup):

That would pull the most recent poll, and you'd never have to update your PHP file. You'd also have to update the other queries in that snippet you posted.

 

Put the code between <!-- START OF POLLER --> and <!-- END OF POLLER --> in a file called pollPHP.php. Then add the following code to wherever you want the specific poll to show up:

<?php
$pollerId = 3; // Id of poller
include("pollPHP.php"); //or the path from where you are to the pollPHP file
?>

Also, PHP code does not translate to bandwidth directly. The output from PHP code does.

 

Thank you zulugrid for that interesting tip.

And Thank you www.amagit.com for helping me solve the problem.

I appreciate all the help...