pagination approach with POST?

kark_1999

I have implemented pagination in the past on pages process forms by GET. I would maintain a currentpage by passing it in the URL of each NEXT or page number. THen I would re-hit the database with a "LIMIT" at the end based on what page I was on.
My problem now, however, is that I have to deal with results from a POSTed form. So I can't just pass GET variables along in the URL to get the next page or results, etc. Does anyone know of a good approach for pagination under these circumstances?

To be more specific, I have a simple call logging system I use here at work. I can enter all kinds of search criteria and click SEARCH. The results, however, could be > 1000, so I'd like to break the results into chunks of 50. The reason I don't want to just alter this form by making the method=GET is that I am allowing customers to view their calls as well, and I don't want them hacking the querystring (URL).

Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks.

devinemke

whatever data you were sending before via GET can just as easily sent via POST by using form fields (hidden if necessary). be advised however that this doesn't make your system any more secure, POST data can be hacked just as well as GET data.

if you only want certain users to see certain things then you must implemnet some sort of authentication system.

kark_1999

I don't think I was clear. I am using a form with method=post to return results on a different page. That results page grabs all of the _POST variables at the top of the page, and then hits the db and returns a full resultset.

I could add "LIMIT 0, 50" to the end of the sql statement that is built, but this would be hardcoded. I want the results.php page to grab a GET variable (curpage) that will determine the offset. So, if page 2, I will need to use "LIMIT 50, 50". Navigation between pages will occur by the user clicking on NEXT, PREV, or page # links. In the past, those links contained all of the fields that were passed to the results.php the first time the form was submitted via GET, so it was just another GET variable. If the form initially POSTS, then how can I handle this? Have redundant checks of POST and GET variables? Is this even possible?

Regarding hidden fields and POSTing, sure I can do this during the SUBMIT of the search form (search.php), but once in results.php, the navigation will be _GET and I'll have to manually build the query string ("&custid=1&projid=4&curpage=3....").

devinemke

Originally posted by kark_1999
...That results page grabs all of the _POST variables at the top of the page, and then hits the db and returns a full resultset.

why? if you know that there will be 1000 records coming in (and you will if you do a COUNT() query) then don't return everything on the initial page, just return the first 50. make the LIMIT clause in your query dynamic. if the limit is not explicitly set (via GET/POST) then make it LIMIT 0, 50. if it is, build you query using the passed offset. nothing needs to be hardcoded.

ultimately, make you code deal with the incoming data iregardeless of GET/POST. you could conditionality check to see if certain GET/POST vars exist and proceed accordingly or think about using $_REQUEST instead.