Why to generate the HTML in PHP:
- JavaScript should define the behaviour, not the content.
- Creating in JavaScript requires more markup (multi-line strings aren't as easy as in PHP).
- It's harder to maintain if your HTML is generated in several places (PHP & JS).
- You could use jQuery's DOM manipulation functions to create your HTML, but you're shooting yourself in the leg on the long run.
- It's faster to create the HTML at the server than on the browser (in computational sense).
- Looping is easier with PHP – it's easy to generate table markup.
- You retain some kind of combatibility if the user has JavaScript disabled if you output the markup on page load.
Why to generate the HTML in jQuery:
- You'd save some bandwidth.
- Binding events might be simpler.
So, I'm in favour of the first option, generating the HTML in PHP.
Visual comparison of the two methods, creating a simple table.
Option 1, using PHP:
// PHP
$html = '<table>';
foreach($data as $row) {
$html .= '<tr>';
$html .= '<td><a href="#" class="button">Click!</a></td>';
$html .= '<td>'.$row['id'].'</td>';
$html .= '<td>'.$row['name'].'</td>';
$html .= '</tr>';
}
$html .= '</table>';
echo $html;
?>
// jQuery
$('#container').load('handler.php', function() {
$('#container a.button').click(function() {
// Do something
});
});
Option 2, using jQuery:
// PHP
echo json_encode($data);
// jQuery
$.ajax({
url: 'handler.php',
dataType: 'json',
success: function(data) {
var table = $('<table />');
var len = data.length;
for(var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
var row = $('<tr />');
var a = $('<a />').attr('href', '#').addClass('button');
row.append($('<td />').append(a));
row.append($('<td />').html(data[i].id);
row.append($('<td />').html(data[i].name);
table.append(row);
}
table.find('.button').click(function() {
// Do something
});
$('#container').html(table);
}
});
From a design / ease of coding / beauty point of view, I'd definitely say go with the PHP approach.
