   [web] im lost - how can i accomplish this?
  im creating a webgame with fairly specific needs. when a user clicks on a button on the ui, i need a box to popup, (over the main page not in a new window), the popup needs to have scroll bars, and needs to update regularily with queries from the database. Think of it like a list of current users in their location. Then the user can close this box. I know ill use php to access the database. but what about the display of the box and updating it from database? ajax?thanks.   
  You can use CSS to position the box in a fixed location on the screen, and to give it's content scroll bars.You can use &#106avascript async requests (aka AJAX) to update the content.   ;  You can do it with &#106avascript.What you do is create your html page and then create a DIV that is positioned where you want it and is hidden and the z-index is higher than everything else.<DIV style="display:none;z-index:1">  <A id="updateMe"> Test Data </A></DIV>When you want to display the item you create some &#106avascript that shows the div and updates the text.<br><br><!--STARTSCRIPT--><!--source lang="javascript"--><div class="source"><pre><br>&lt;SCRIPT&gt;<br><br>  <span class="cpp-keyword">function</span> showBox() {<br><br>    <span class="cpp-keyword">var</span> updateText = document.getElementById(<span class="cpp-literal">"updateMe"</span>);<br><br>    updateText.style.display = <span class="cpp-literal">"block"</span>;<br><br>    getData(updateText);<br><br>  }<br><br><span class="cpp-keyword">function</span> getData(e) {<br><br>    <span class="cpp-keyword">if</span> (window.XMLHttpRequest) {<span class="cpp-comment">// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari</span><br>   xmlhttp = <span class="cpp-keyword">new</span> XMLHttpRequest();<br>    }<br>    <span class="cpp-keyword">else</span> {<span class="cpp-comment">// code for IE6, IE5</span><br>   xmlhttp = <span class="cpp-keyword">new</span> ActiveXObject(<span class="cpp-literal">"Microsoft.XMLHTTP"</span>);<br>    }<br><br>    <span class="cpp-keyword">var</span> url = <span class="cpp-literal">"get_data_from_my_database.php"</span>;<br><br>    <span class="cpp-keyword">var</span> params = <span class="cpp-literal">"name=updateMe"</span>;<br><br>    xmlhttp.open(<span class="cpp-literal">"POST"</span>, url, <span class="cpp-keyword">true</span>);<br><br>    xmlhttp.setRequestHeader(<span class="cpp-literal">"Content-type"</span>, <span class="cpp-literal">"application/x-www-form-urlencoded"</span>);<br><br>    xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = <span class="cpp-keyword">function</span> () {<br>    <br><span class="cpp-comment">// This is where the text gets updated,</span><br><span class="cpp-comment">// just bear in mind that it will only update when it gets</span><br><span class="cpp-comment">// a response so you may want some default 'Loading' text</span><br><span class="cpp-comment">// in the &lt;A&gt; tag</span><br>  e.innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;<br><br>    }<br><br>    xmlhttp.send(params);<br><br>}<br><br>&lt;/SCRIPT&gt;<br><br><br><br><br></pre></div><!--ENDSCRIPT--><br><br>Then you have a PHP file called "get_data_from_my_database.php" that has this...:<br><br><!--STARTSCRIPT--><!--source lang="cpp"--><div class="source"><pre><br>&lt;?php<br><br>$value=$_POST[<span class="cpp-literal">"value"</span>];<br>$name=$_POST[<span class="cpp-literal">"name"</span>];<br><br><br><span class="cpp-comment">/// INSERT ALL YOUR DATABASEY STUFF HERE!!!</span><br><br>echo(<span class="cpp-literal">"I am returning anything I found in the database"</span>);<br><br>?&gt;<br><br><br><br><br></pre></div><!--ENDSCRIPT-->    ;  thanks for the help.so ive made my elements separate divs, and set them all to visibility: none in my css. now im trying to make them visible through &#106avascript. the &#106avascript will be called by a php function which finds which location the user is currently in. my &#106avascript isnt making the div visible. this is the code currently:<SCRIPT language=&#106avascript>  function showBox(name) {    var updateText = document.getElementById(name);    updateText.style.display = "block";}<?php echo "<script language=&#106avascript>showBox(\"home_bg\");</script>";?>home_bg is the name of one the hidden divs. this is bypassing the php function, just to make sure that the &#106avascript showBox function is working.;  By the way, to avoid reinventing the wheel and running into all sort of cross browser quirks, you might want to look in to popular libraries like jQuery. They can make life a lot easier.   