Mixing and Matching

My unfamiliarity with PHP and JavaScript is illustrated by the fact that it has only just occurred to me that I don't have to choose between one or the other, but can in fact enjoy both. So for example, bringing my Add User screen into the PHP fold was simply a matter of changing the file extension and adding:

session_start();

at the top of the file. Everything else remained the same. All the JavaScript remained untouched, all the business rules remained the same, and if the business rules were satisfied, the same PHP file was called to run the data transaction. For display purposes the username was called, and usertype was called to ensure only administrators added to the database.

I had also been scratching my head about passing PHP variables back to the Applet to enrich the data stored in my database, but then it finally sunk into my head that they didn't need to be passed backwards and forwards. Variables (such as username, and IP) gathered by PHP, could simply be stored as session variables, while the user navigated from the login page to the Applet, and when the Applet called a PHP script, those same variables could be called on the page hosting the PHP script. They could then be woven into enhanced SQL commands on that page, without ever having been near the Applet itself.

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