Hi All,

I'm starting to build a simple content management system and need a little help to make it as interactive as possible.

I need to try and make a drag and drop layout manager using ajax and php.

What i want to accomplish is to have a dynamically generated list of layout positions and a dynamically generated list of the modules already in position and the ones which are unused in a list below, which can be dragged and dropped into their layout position and stored in the database to record where they are so then when pages are loaded the layout can easily be loaded from the database.

Is this something which is possible?

I already know php and can get the stuff to and from the database, but i need to know how to make the drag and drop part with ajax and how ajax would pass the information to php to be stored in the database.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Martin

If you search for drag and drop you should be able to find plenty of tutorials. I think most Ajax libraries will have something written so you'll just need to include the library and use it's functions.

As far as passing the info to php that's the basic thing that makes Ajax Ajax. It's done through an XMLHttpRequest. You might just want to grab a quick tutorial on Ajax basics.

Thanks for your fast reply, yea i think i might just start with a basics tutorial hehe It's just that i want to make this script as efficient as possible.

Regards,
Martin

You may want to consider learning a JS framework, such as jQuery, Prototype, etc. I recommend jQuery, because its AJAX functions are especially efficient, but every framework will have an excellent way of providing shortcuts to do common functions. Every framework has a way to do drag-n-drop also, either in its core system or as part of an extension to the library.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with not using a framework, but I find that it takes longer to work out all of the bugs and make it cross-browser compatible, since the code is larger and the issues more complex. That said, it is important to understand the core of JavaScript, so that you don't end up using a library as a crutch, which will hinder you in furthering your understanding of the browser and scripting.