如何在模态窗口中显示内容？

Question

I have a simple application here (QandATable2.php) where when the user clicks on the plus button, it will open a modal window and it displays the details which is stored in another page (previousquestions.php).

Now the problem I have is that if you straight away click on the "Search" button when the textbox is blank, you will see that it loads the page on its own page, displaying the message to enter in a phrase for the search and it also displays all of the features previously from the modal window into that page as well. This is incorrect.

What I want it to do is that if the user has clicked on the search button, then when it post's the form and outputs the message, it does it within the modal window, not on its own whole page. So does anyone know how this can be acheived?

The modal window I am using is known as SimpleModal and it's website is here

Below is the QandATable2.php code where it displays the plus button and where it opens the modal window, linking the content of the modal window to the previousquestions.php page:

<script type="text/javascript">

  function plusbutton()
    {

    $.modal( $('<div />').load('previousquestions.php #previouslink') );            
    return false;
}

</script>


<h1>CREATING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS</h1>

<table id="plus" align="center">
<tr>
<th>
<a onclick="return plusbutton();">
<img src="Images/plussign.jpg" width="30" height="30" alt="Look Up Previous Question" class="plusimage"/>
</a>
<span id="plussignmsg">(Click Plus Sign to look <br/> up Previous Questions)</span>
</th>
</tr>
</table>

Below is the previousquestions.php code, where it displays the details in the modal window and where the search feature is stored:

<?php

      foreach (array('questioncontent') as $varname) {
        $questioncontent = (isset($_POST[$varname])) ? $_POST[$varname] : '';
      }

?>

    <div id="previouslink">
    <button type="button" id="close" onclick="return closewindow();">Close</button>
    <h1>PREVIOUS QUESTIONS</h1>

    <p>Search for a previous question by entering in a phrase in the search box below and submitting the phrase</p>

    <form action="previousquestions.php" method="post">
          <p>Search: <input type="text" name="questioncontent" value="<?php echo $questioncontent; ?>" /></p>
          <p><input id="searchquestion" name="searchQuestion" type="submit" value="Search" /></p>
          </form>

    </div>

    <?php 

    //...connected to DB

                if (isset($_POST['searchQuestion'])) {

                  $questionquery = "SELECT QuestionContent FROM Question
              WHERE(QuestionContent = '".mysql_real_escape_string($questioncontent)."')";

            if (empty($questioncontent)){
        echo "Please enter in a phrase in the text box in able to search for a question";
    }
          ?>

Answer 1

I have found out from an answer on another page to a similar question to this that like Bergi has stated, it is easier using an iframe than using ajax to keep content displayed within a modal window. So the best answer for this question is below where it shows how an iframe is used for the question above:

  function plusbutton() { 
    // Display an external page using an iframe 
    var src = "previousquestions.php"; 
    $.modal('<iframe src="' + src + '" style="border:0;width:100%;height:100%;">');
    return false;
}