What are the potential pitfalls of mixing PHP and JavaScript in form processing, and what are the best practices for handling client-side interactions in PHP scripts?

Mixing PHP and JavaScript in form processing can lead to potential security vulnerabilities and make the code harder to maintain. To handle client-side interactions in PHP scripts, it is recommended to separate the server-side processing logic from the client-side validation logic. This can be achieved by using AJAX to send data to the server for processing and returning the results to the client.

<?php
// Server-side processing logic
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    // Process form data
    $name = $_POST['name'];
    $email = $_POST['email'];
    
    // Validate form data
    if (empty($name) || empty($email)) {
        echo "Please fill out all fields.";
    } else {
        // Insert data into database or perform other actions
        echo "Form submitted successfully!";
    }
}
?>