Displaying table data in modal with PHP and JavaScript

I’m still somewhat new to PHP and JavaScript. I’m working on a web application that involves me displaying some data in a table using PHP and MySQL.

I would like to be able to click on a row of the table and display a modal that will include additional details about the row I just clicked on. I currently have the modal displaying fine when the row is clicked.

Using JavaScript I can already parse whatever is displayed in the table row to the modal.

My Issue is, there are some details I would NOT like to show on the table row, but would like to display in the modal when the full details are viewed. How can I parse the extra values from PHP to the modal?

EDIT: I’m using the JavaScript DataTables library if that matters.

Code:

PHP:

if ($stmt = $conn->prepare($query)) {
    $stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
    $stmt->execute();
    $stmt->bind_result($issueID, $title, $projectName, $assignedTo, $priority, 
        $status, $type, $creationDate, $dueDate);

    while($stmt->fetch()) {
        echo "<tr>";
        echo "<td>$title</td>";
        echo "<td>$projectName</td>";
        echo "<td>$assignedTo</td>";
        echo "<td>$priority</td>";
        echo "<td>$status</td>";
        echo "<td>$type</td>";
        echo "<td>$creationDate</td>";            
        echo "</tr>";
    }
    $stmt->free_result();
    $stmt->close();
}

For example I am retrieving the $dueDate in my SQL query, and I want to display this in the modal but not in a table row.

I can try give more clarification if needed, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer

To do this without Ajax, generate the table rows with your data- attributes, e.g. data-duedate="2020-05-12". When the user clicks for more info, the JS that handles that click would detect which row was clicked, retrieve the relevant data-foo values from that row (see jQuery’s data() function), populate the modal with those values, and finally show the modal.

The down side is that you’re retrieving a ton of data which will always reside in the table, even if the user never clicks for any details. On the plus side, clicking for details should be relatively fast.

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Answer