Forward n back link navigation

[sol01]

Okay I know this has been flogged a bit but I have a question that I don't feel has been covered..In my opinion! 🙂

Ok say I have this table structure

---

id | title | article | type

I am storing differant articles that are defined by the "type" column. Now I will be entering these in randomly like it could be a defferant "type" everytime and some days the "type" will all be the same.

So in otherwords if I want to display all of "type" NEWSHEADLINES then how would I do the forward and back buttons as the autoincremented "id" is not in numurical order?

I would do a select from table where type = "NEWSHEADLINES" etc etc.

Then what would I do?? Any ideas??? -- TX ALL!!!

[[deleted]]

The next/prev is based on running the same query every time (based on the type), and just picking different rows from the resultset.

It should not be based on selecting a record with and ID that is one more or one less than the current ID.

Therefore it doesn't matter what order hte ID's are in. You always run the same query, you always get the same results, you just pick different rows from the results.

[sol01]

OK that great information. It helps make things clearer. So if I do the following:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM far where type = \"newsheadlines\"" );

print "<table border=0>\n";
while ( $a_row = mysql_fetch_array( $result ))
{
print "<tr>\n";
print "<td><b>$a_row[title]</b><br><br>$a_row[article]</td>\n";
print "</tr>\n";
}
print "</table>\n";

That will print every entry I have in my table to the browser. My question is how do I define entries from the next? In order to assemble a structure for forward and back links?

[Anon]

Use LIMIT n,m to have mysql only return a subset of the rows. You change the offset each time, and keep the number of rows the same.

[sol01]

Thats an interesting idea. I didn't think of that -- of course 🙂!!

So say you got 15 rows of data and you wanted to have them displayed at one per page with the next and back links.

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM far where idno = \"newsheadlines\"" LIMIT 1 , 1 );

The next page would then do:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM far where idno = \"newsheadlines\"" LIMIT 2 , 1 );

Now what would be the best way to pass the the iformation from page to page about what was called in the last page?

[Anon]

Pass the offset value to the next/prev pages. Also, when you hit the first/last page, you can omit the prev/next as appropriate:

[sol01]

Okey I think I figured it...Somewhat. I am sure there are ways to make this look prettier but this is what I ended up with :

$link = mysql_pconnect("$host", $usr, $pass);
if (!$link)
die("Couldn't connect to MySQL Database");

mysql_select_db($db)
or die ("couldn't open $db: ".mysql_error());

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM word where type = 'search'" );
$total = mysql_num_rows( $query );

$total--;

if (($offset == "") || ($offset < "0") || ($offset > $total))
{
$offset = "0";
$start = ", 1";
}
else
{
$start = ", 1";
}

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM word where type = 'search' LIMIT $offset$start" );

print "<table border=0>\n";
while ( $a_row = mysql_fetch_array( $query ))
{
print "<tr>\n";
print "<td><b>$a_row[title]</b><br><br>$a_row[body]</td>\n";
print "</tr>\n";
}
print "</table>\n";

if ($offset <= "0")
{
print "Back";
}
else
{
$back = $offset - 1;
print "<a href =\"index.php?offset=$back\">Back</a>";
}

if ($offset >= $total)
{
print "forward";
}
else
{
$forward = $offset + 1;
print "<a href =\"index.php?offset=$forward\">Forward</a>";
}

If you would care to critique this slap job code I would be very happy to hear your comments. -- TX