Question: I currently need to use a similar piece of PHP code. Modifying this code is not an option.

```
<?
session_start();

include '../connection.inc';

$conn = new Connection();

echo "ID:" . $conn->generateID();
echo "\n";
?>

```

In connection.inc a connection to a database can be made by creating a new Connection(). From there, the database can generate a unique 16-character ID (conn->generateID).
Is there a way to retrieve to execute this PHP-file from javascript and extract the 16-character ID from the PHP-echo in javascript?

Answer: 
There's an alternative to the AJAX call, though it's a little...unusual. `Output Buffering`.

A little example:

```
<?php
    ob_start();  //This will stop all echoed output from being sent immediately.
    include("Whereveryourcodeis.php");
    ob_end_clean();  //Discards what has been stored and stops buffering.
?>

```

After this fragment, you can use `$conn->generateID` wherever on your page you want, without having written a single line of JavaScript.

I hope this helps a little.
Try something like:

```
<script type="text/javascript">
var dbId = '<?= $conn->generateID(); ?>';
</script>

```