The EasyPHPWebsites site has posted the next tutorial in their series looking at combining PHP and Ajax to make more powerful applications. In this new article they look at the combination of PHP and jQuery as connected by JSON messages.

The ability to create powerful Web interfaces using AJAX is accomplished thanks to the marrying of a server-side language such as PHP and the client-side JavaScript language. But how is data passed between a script executing on the server and another executing within the user's browser, all without going through the usual request-response process which requires the page to reload?

The jQuery/JSON "glue" is one alternative and the option he explores. He briefly introduces JSON and its format before getting into the jQuery use of it or the PHP code behind it. Thankfully, PHP has a handy function to make things easier for the developer - the json_encode and json_decode functions.