How does Gmail use anchors for page reloading and how can PHP developers replicate this functionality?

Gmail uses anchors in the URL to trigger page reloading without refreshing the entire page. PHP developers can replicate this functionality by using JavaScript to listen for anchor changes and then make an AJAX request to fetch new content based on the anchor value. 

<script>
window.addEventListener('hashchange', function() {
  var anchor = window.location.hash.substr(1);
  var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
  xhr.open('GET', 'get_content.php?anchor=' + anchor, true);
  xhr.onload = function() {
    if (xhr.status >= 200 && xhr.status < 400) {
      document.getElementById('content').innerHTML = xhr.responseText;
    }
  };
  xhr.send();
});
</script>

Keywords

Gmail anchors page reloading PHP developers functionality

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