Load page via AJAX and redirect to parent

[alejandro]

Hello, a page with url "site/teachers" shows the layout:

| main section | aside |

"main" shows a list of teachers, and when clicked in one teacher its info is loaded in "aside" via ajax.

Now I want to use URL segments in page "teachers" to display a teacher info in "aside" when URL = "site/teachers/teacher1"

But when url "site/teachers/teacher1" is entered browser gets directed to "teacher1" page itself (and causes a mess because is loaded in main not aside...) instead of "teachers" page plus url segment and teacher info in aside.

In page "teachers" i use the code:

foreach ($page->children as $c) {
	if($input->urlSegment1 == '{$c->name}') {
		$page->aside .= "... page content...";
	}
}

First time using url segments, so I think i dont understand how to make it work properly. I hope I explained the problem more or less understandable.

Thanks in advance, Alejandro.

[Jan Romero]

Existing pages always take precedence over urlSegments. You have several options:

• Use urlSegments that don’t exist as children of /site/teachers/, for example by adding a string, or by using 2 urlSegments. E.g. /site/teachers/selection/teacher1/.
• Use GET parameters instead: /site/teachers/?teacher=teacher1. You could either process the parameter with PHP or catch it with JavaScript and use your existing AJAX solution. Which would probably be the simplest option. Just add one or two lines of JS.
• Or, if you don't want the actual page under /site/teachers/teacher1/ to be reachable at all, just display /site/teachers/ in that template. Example below:

template of /site/teachers/teacher1/:

$options['teacher'] = $page; //pass the teacher to the parent page using options array

echo $page->parent->render($options); //render the parent page (/site/teachers/)

template of /site/teachers/:

if(isset($options['teacher'] && $options['teacher'] instanceof Page) {
    $aside_teacher = $options['teacher'];
}

//Now render the page as you normally would, and you can use $aside_teacher to put its contents where you need them

This also has the added bonus that you can use standard page caching for the child pages.

[alejandro]

Thanks Jan. I'm using your first solution, as is enough for what I need.

Thank you very much.