Web Coding & Development All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

Fetching Data with PHP, JavaScript, and JSON

IN THIS CHAPTER

Dealing with asynchronous operations

Making sense of the Fetch API

Loading server data into a page element

Sending data to and receiving data from the server

Using JSON to work with complex data from the server

The Fetch API is a game-changer for developers, giving them unparalleled flexibility … to easily and quickly make URL requests from your browser.

— DANIELLE ELLIS

When coding web pages, it feels like there’s a great divide between the browser front end and the server back end. When you’re working on the front end, you can use HTML tags, CSS properties, and JavaScript code to build, style, and animate your pages. When you’re working on the back end, you can use MySQL and PHP code to define, access, and manipulate data. That all works, but front-end code without back-end data produces a lifeless page, whereas back-end data without front-end code produces useless information.

To create a truly dynamic web ...