trying to add variables to next / previous to enable using a database for info needed

purplevortex

😕 Hi I am just learning to code in php / mysql was an avid asp / access person who has finally taken the plunge into php. What I am trying to do is this.
Have a web page list a series of options which is stored in the database, when the user clicks on an option it takes them to a page which shows all the information pertaining to that option by parsing the url for the data.
eg choosing red backgrounds sends u to http://www.urlhere.net/bg.php?color=red&id=2

I have this working fine, but when it gets to the page there are so many backgrounds to display it only makes sense to use the prev/next buttons.

I have the prev/next working only if i hard code the id into the query for the backgrounds, if i use the variable name then I only get the first page and when you hit the next button or another page number it drops the color and id from the url and therefore has nothing to load on the page since the query is dependant on the id.

I have tried several things but nothing works to get both of these pieces of code to work together, I thought of using sessions ( to maintain the variable data) but also cannot find any simple session code without actually writing a cookie like there is in asp.

I would appreciate any feedback as soon as possible as I am stuck here until I get help.

Thank you very much,
purplevortex

qest

Lets see if I understand this correctly. You are using the get method to pass the color and id fields. Which take you to the page you want, but if you want to go to the previous or next page from that one, it overrides you the get and becomes useless? If that's the case, one possible solution is to use hidden fields. For example, you have something like this now:

<form method="get">
<input type="submit" value="next" />
<input type="submit" value="previous" />
</form>

If you change this to the following by adding the hidden fields, it will look like this:

<form method="get">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="<?php echo($id); ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="color" value="<?php echo($color); ?>" />
<input type="submit" name="next" value="next" />
<input type="submit" name="previous" value="previous" />
</form>

Then the id and color field are still accessable.

Hope this answers your question.

Qest

toxic_brain

or u can use links for Next and Previous and will maintain ur color as,

echo "<a href='bg.php?color=".  $_GET['color'] . "&id=$_GET['id'] . ">Next</a>

purplevortex

I am not using a form for this and I really would prefer not to if possible, if I was coding in asp I could have it work this way so I know there has to be a way it will work with php. Here is all the code I am using maybe it will lend a better idea to what I am looking for.

The first page that lists the choice of background styles to view is as follows (and works perfectly)

<table border='0' width='600'><tr>
<?php
include("db.inc.php");

$x = 1;

$sql = "SELECT * FROM backgroundfields ORDER BY bgField";
$query = mysql_query($sql);
while($db = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {

if ($x == 1){
$x = 2;
echo "<td width='200' align='center' valign='top'>";
echo "<a href='tdbgs.php?bgtid=$db[0]&tbg=$db[1]'>$db[1]</a> ";

}elseif ($x == 16){
$x = 1;
echo "<a href='tdbgs.php?bgtid=$db[0]&tbg=$db[1]'>$db[1]</a> ";
echo "</td>";
}else{

$x = $x + 1;
echo "<a href='tdbgs.php?bgtid=$db[0]&tbg=$db[1]'>$db[1]</a> ";

}

?>
</tr></table>

The above code lists on one page all background styles, when you choose a style it then sends the variables re the url in which I grab and then reset them to use within my code on the next page. The next page is suppose to list all of the backgrounds within that background type, using paging to only display 20 per page, it is within the paging code that I have had difficulties getting it to pass the variables again, I have tried adding the code to the various spots (that have <a href...> but no luck as well as a few other spots trying different things and still no luck.

<table border='0' width='600'><tr><td align='center' colspan='5'>
<?php
include("db.inc.php");
include("MySQLPagedResults.class.php");

foreach($_GET as $key => $value)
{
$$key = $value;
}
$ttbg = $tbg;
$ctbg = strtoupper($tbg);
$tbgtid = $bgtid;
echo "$ctbg BACKGROUNDS </td></tr><tr>";

$paging_results = new MySQLPagedResults("SELECT count(*) FROM BACKGROUNDS WHERE bgField LIKE $bgtid","page","",20,10,"<<","Previous","Next",">>"," | ");

$first_nav = $paging_results->getFirstNav();
$prev_nav = $paging_results->getPrevNav();
$next_nav = $paging_results->getNextNav();
$last_nav = $paging_results->getLastNav();
$pages_nav = $paging_results->getPagesNav();
$offset = $paging_results->currentOffset();
$results_per_page = $paging_results->results_per_page;
$current_page = $paging_results->current_page;
$total_pages = $paging_results->totalPages();
$start_number = $paging_results->getResultNumbersStart();
$end_number = $paging_results->getResultNumbersEnd();

$x = 1;

$sql = "SELECT * FROM BACKGROUNDS WHERE bgField LIKE $bgtid LIMIT $offset,$results_per_page";

$query = mysql_query($sql);

while($db = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {

if ($x == 1){
$x = 2;
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width='120' align='center' valign='middle'>";
echo "<a href='backgrounds/$db[1]' target='_blank'><img src='backgrounds/.$db[1]' border='0' width='$db[3]' height='$db[4]' /></a> ";
echo "</td>";

}elseif ($x == 5){
$x = 1;
echo "<td width='120' align='center' valign='middle'>";
echo "<a href='backgrounds/$db[1]' target='_blank'><img src='backgrounds/.$db[1]' border='0' width='$db[3]' height='$db[4]' /></a> ";
echo "</td></tr>";

}else{
$x = $x + 1;
echo "<td width='120' align='center' valign='middle'>";
echo "<a href='backgrounds/$db[1]' target='_blank'><img src='backgrounds/.$db[1]' border='0' width='$db[3]' height='$db[4]' /></a> ";
echo "</td>";
}

}

echo "<tr><td colspan='5' align='center'>";
echo "Page: $current_page of $total_pages  |  Results:

$start_number - $end_number ";
echo "$first_nav $prev_nav $pages_nav $next_nav $last_nav";
echo "</td></tr>";

?>
</table>

If I hardcode within the query then the paging works fine, but as you can see I cannot do that if I want to only have one page run for this whole function, using the variable within the query works on the front page only, and I have tried various different things to see if I could pass the variables on to the all of the other pages with the prev/next pageset.

Thank you so much
purplevortex

purplevortex

Ok I have restructured by paging code, so that it is capable of passing the data I need passed so it is all working fine now. Thank you so much.
purplevortex