Ajax php variables in javascript

I have the code below that previously worked fine:

var xmlHttp
var layername
var url
function update(layer, url) {
    var xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject(); //you have this defined elsewhere

    if(xmlHttp==null) {
        alert("Your browser is not supported?");
    }

    xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if(xmlHttp.readyState==4 || xmlHttp.readyState=="complete") {
            document.getElementById(layer).innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText;
        } else if (xmlHttp.readyState==1 || xmlHttp.readyState=="loading") {
            document.getElementById(layer).innerHTML="loading";
        }

       //etc
    }

    xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);
    xmlHttp.send(null);
}


function updateByPk(layer, pk) {
   url = "get_auction.php?cmd=GetAuctionData&pk="+pk+"&sid="+Math.random();
   update(layer, url);
}


function updateByQuery(layer, query) {
   url = "get_records.php?cmd=GetRecordSet&query="+query+"&sid="+Math.random();
   update(layer, url);
}

function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
    var xmlHttp=null;
    try
    {
        xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
    }catch (e)
    {

        try
        {
                xmlHttp =new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        } 
        catch (e) {}

    }
return xmlHttp;
}
function makewindows(){
child1 = window.open ("about:blank");
var phpstring = <?php $out = htmlspecialchars(json_encode($row2['ARTICLE_DESC']), ENT_QUOTES); echo("'$out'"); ?>; 
child1.document.write(phpstring); 
//child1.document.write("<?php echo htmlspecialchars(json_encode($row2['ARTICLE_DESC']), ENT_QUOTES); ?>");
child1.document.close(); 
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

The part that was written worked fine in the previus version as the javascript was replacing row2 ['ARTICLE_DESC'], a php variable with the content of the variable. This javascript file is included in the script tag in the php file and always worked fine. I recently changed something, but I'm not sure what the specific thing was, but I get these errors from firebug:

function makewindows(){
    child1 = window.open ("about:blank");
    child1.document.write("<br />
    <b>Notice</b>: Undefined variable: row2 in <b>C:\Programme\EasyPHP 2.0b1\www\records4\fetchlayers.js</b> on line <b>57</b><br />
    null");
    child1.document.close();
    }

      

        
        
        
      

    

unterminated string literal on line 57 and updateByQuery is undefined.

I have no idea why I am getting one of these errors and why updateByPk is not throwing an error. I am even more confused as to what article_Desc stands for and how. This happens to index.php, which has a link to call updateByQuery, which will load the section via ajax, which will have a link to updateByPk, which will display the final section, which will have a link to makewindows (), where article_Desc will refer to the corresponding $ pk

It all worked fine and I can't figure out why it is no longer the case.

Would it help me if I was inserting php files somewhere?

change.

I don't understand why this is happening, but tried to modify the function, so it takes a parameter.

function makewindows(html){
child1 = window.open ("about:blank");
child1.document.write(html);
child1.document.close(); 
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

combined with these two php snippets

$html = json_encode(htmlspecialchars($row2['ARTICLE_DESC']));

      

        
        
        
      

    

and

<a href='#' onclick='makewindows(/"".$html."/"); return false;'>Click for full description </a></p>