calling alerts from within PHP scripts...

hi there folks, hope someone can point me in a good direction :-) I have a link on a contact management web page (PHP back end) for a "delete record". This is on a page where the record is already on display. The link goes to the 'deleterecord.php' script, but I want a JS type alert to pop up saying are you sure (y/n) before the execution of the delete. Is it possible to fire this alert window, onTOP of the normal browser window, and if yes then go back to the script and do the delete, while if 'no' then just close alert and exit script (leaving me back at the record display screen)... any help would be truly appreciated, richard