Add a preview to a WordPress Control Panel

I’m trying to create a new wordpress template and inside it I added a Control Panel, inside this control panel there is an option that allows user to choose where he want’s to place a on a map, I try to explain: user can set div’s left and top attributes via control panel.
Now I know how to add an iframe that can show a preview of the changes but it doesn’t work as I would like (how to add the preview? read here: Modify CSS via Theme Control Panel) What I would like to add is a real time preview. As soon as the user modify TOP or LEFT attribute preview has to show what it is happening without showing it to “live” blog.

Here is my function.php:

array( "name" => "Before we start",
    "type" => "section"),
array( "type" => "open"),
array( "name" => "Where is the map?",
    "desc" => "Insert map page url",
    "id" => $shortname."_pama",
    "type" => "text",
    "std" => "http://examplepage.com"),
array( "type" => "close"),
array( "name" => "Zona 1",
    "type" => "section"),
array( "type" => "open"),
array(  "name" => "Activate zona 1?",
    "desc" => "Choose yes or no",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona1c",
    "type" => "checkbox",
    "std" => "false"),
array( "name" => "Zona 1 X-Axis",
    "desc" => "Where do you want it on x-axis?",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona1x",
    "type" => "text",
    "std" => "Left:???"),
array( "name" => "Zona 1 Y-Axis",
    "desc" => "Where do you want it on y-axis?",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona1y",
    "type" => "text",
    "std" => "Top:???"),
array( "type" => "close"),
array( "name" => "Zona 1",
    "type" => "section"),
array( "type" => "open"),
array(  "name" => "Activate zona 2?",
    "desc" => "Choose yes or no",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona1c",
    "type" => "checkbox",
    "std" => "false"),
array( "name" => "Zona 2 X-Axis",
    "desc" => "Choose where you want it on X-Axis",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona2x",
    "type" => "text",
    "std" => "Left:???"),
array( "name" => "Zona 2 Y-Axis",
    "desc" => "Choose where you want it on Y-Axis",
    "id" => $shortname."_zona2y",
    "type" => "text",
    "std" => "Top:???"),
array( "type" => "close"),
array( "type" => "close"),
);

This is the iframe that I use to show the preview inside Control Panel:

<iframe src="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/12679/<?php echo clean_url(apply_filters("preview_post_link', add_query_arg('preview', 'true', get_option('appacqua_pama')))); ?>" width="100%" height="600" ></iframe>

Ok, now the big question is there a STEP TO STEP way to add a preview on real time (I don’t know how to explain it better, I’m really sorry…), what do you think will it be possible to use ajax? (I heard about it but I’m not a programmer so please write in a Dummy Proof way!!!) Will I need to add also a PREVIEW button instead of only SAVE button? How to add it? Do you know Mystique theme by digitalnature? something like this will be GREAT! If you can’t write it here why don’t you write a very good, and step to step, tutorial on your website? There is a lack of good articles about how to create a very good Theme-Option panel with a lot of functionalities for wordpress 3.x maybe you’ll be the next and you’ll also help us…poor noobs 🙂
Thank you very much for your time and patience!

If you look at Mystique theme (a great example of option panel with preview BTW) you can see that the main idea is to lavrage the form fields OnChange or change() events to load the theme’s preview with Jquery and a bit of ajax.

So you have one function to load by ajax the preview

function mystique_get_site_preview() {
  check_ajax_referer("site_preview"); ?>
  <iframe id="themepreview" name="themepreview" src="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/12679/<?php echo get_option("home'); ?>/?preview=1"></iframe>
  <?php die();
}

and to create the auto preview effect you use some JQuery with PHP:

$nonce = wp_create_nonce('site_preview');
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
    jQuery(document).ready(function () {
        jQuery("#$zona1y").change(function() {// if a user changed the y-Axis
            check_preview_refresh();
            }
        );
        jQuery("#$zona1x").change(function() {// if a user changed the x-Axis
            check_preview_refresh();
            }
        );
    });

    function check_preview_refresh(){
        if (jQuery("#zona1y").val() != '' && jQuery("#zona1x").val() != '' ){
            jQuery.ajax({
                type: "post",url: "admin-ajax.php",data: { action: 'site_preview', _ajax_nonce: '<?php echo $nonce; ?>' },
                success: function(html){
                    jQuery("#themepreview").html(html);
                    jQuery("#themepreview").show();
                }
            });
        }
    }
</script>

Now this code assumes that you have two input fields with the id of “zona1y” and “zona1y”
and a div wrapping your Iframe with the id of “themepreview”.

and that should get you started.

Update:

I forgot you will need to add:

add_action('wp_ajax_site_preview', 'mystique_get_site_preview');

Now

the first part + the last line of code go in your functions.php

and the second part needs to go on your theme option panel page.