remembering previous POSTs

[babygodzilla]

so i have a form like a search engine and users can fill in the form hit submit and a process on a different file will be executed. what i want is to have a link to go back to the search page, but with the previous search queries intact. how do i go about this?

[tuf-web_co_uk]

use sessions

on the first page in your text box field do something like this

<input type="text" name="query" value="<?=$_SESSION["query"]?>">

where query is the variable name you want

and on the page that processes the results have this at the very very top of your page

<?
session_start();
$SESSION["query"] = $_POST["query"];
?>

try that :S

make sure you use session_start(); at the top of the form page aswell

[babygodzilla]

ok ill try it thanks!

[babygodzilla]

can this be used to remember checked checkboxes too?

[ednark]

yes but checkboxes are a bit tricky...

if the checkbox was checked, that variable will exist in the $POST
if the checkbox wasn't checked, that variable will NOT exist in $POST

so your code should (in pseudocode) have this effect

if isset($_POST['checkbox_name']) {
    echo '<input type="checkbox" checked="checked">';
} else {
    echo '<input type="checkbox">';
}

if you dump $POST into $SESSION somewhere to save it, then check isset($_SESSION['where_i_dumped_it']) instead