I am currently writing an extension similar to CategoryTree that will display a JavaScript drop-down tree and populate its children on the fly using ajax. The drop down tree is based on the Gene Ontologyhttp://www.geneontology.org/, a set of hierarchal terms to describe biological processes, functions and locations. My questions are two:
(1.) What is the correct syntax for querying an external (mysql) database? I have looked into the Database.php and DatabaseFunctions.phpfiles, but don't quite understand how to do this. My mysql database can easily be queried to give the children of a particular term, if I could only select that database. I currently have a voodoo-like approach using functions I wrote myself, but I'm sure there is a better way to do this.
(2.) How do I correctly make an Ajax call? I have figured out how to send my JavaScript along with the page, and I already have a listener-function written, but I cannot figure out how to call a function in a class on the server using ajax.
Daniel Renfro Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics 2128 TAMU Texas A&M Univ. College Station, TX 77843-2128 979-458-3376