Passing a search variable from the search page to a details page via a results page?

Iain

Hope someone can help with this, as I'm sure it's not too tricky - I'm just a bit unsure of the correct syntax / what needs to go where.

Basically I have a search page, which passes through the inputed text to a results page when the form is submitted. So far so good.

But I have an accented keywords bit of code that bolds up any matching text in the results.

However, this is in a lengthy CV type field that only appears in the details page, not the results page.

So my question is how do I pass the inputed search variable on from the results page, to the details page so that the matching text can be displayed in bold?

Cheers,
Iain

nnichols

All you need to do is add the search phrase to the query string for the links in the results page, but you must remember to esape the phrase when passing it into the query string using url_encode()

Iain

nnichols wrote:
All you need to do is add the search phrase to the query string for the links in the results page, but you must remember to esape the phrase when passing it into the query string using url_encode()

Can I justy check the syntax for that and exactly where it needs to go?

nnichols

When you are outputting the results page try something like -

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo '<a href="./detail.php?id=' . $row['id'] . '&amp;search_phrase=' . url_encode($_GET['search_phrase']) . '">link_text</a>';
}

As you haven't posted the code you have now I don't know what variables you have or anything but it will probably be something like this.

Hope this helps 😉

Iain

Thanks for that - I'll try that later, and will post the link code if I have any probs.

The search input field is just called 'search', so presumably it's just a case of using 'search' where you've put 'search_phrase'?

Iain

Think my code is slightly different - so I've tried the above, but the syntax doesn't seem quite right, as the code is colouring wrongly ion DW suggesting something isn't right.

The code I have on the results page where the link is to the details page looks like :

<?php do { ?>
<tr>
<td class="idcell"><?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?></td>
<td class="fieldcell"><a href="candidateSearchDetails.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>"><?php echo $row_Candidates['FirstName']; ?>&nbsp;<?php echo $row_Candidates['LastName']; ?></a></td>
<td class="fieldcell"><?php echo $row_Candidates['Telephone']; ?></td>
<td class="idcell"><div class="editdetails"><a href="editCandidate.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>"><img src="../Images/edit7.gif" border="0" width="28px" height="18px" /></a></div></td>
<td class="idcell"><div class="editprofile"><a href="editCanProfiles.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>"><img src="../Images/profile5.gif" border="0" /></a></div></td>
<td class="idcell"><div class="delete"><a href="confirmCanDeletion.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>"><img src="../Images/delete7.gif" border="0" /></a></div></td>
 </tr>
</tr>
<?php } while ($row_Candidates = mysql_fetch_assoc($Candidates)); ?>

The closest I can make it is :

<a href="candidateDetails.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>  . '&amp;search =' . url_encode($_GET['search']) . ' "><?php echo $row_Candidates['FirstName']; ?>&nbsp;<?php echo $row_Candidates['LastName']; ?></a>

But that's giving an error message (on the SQL, which is working fine without adding the &amp etc, so presume it's this code that isn't quite right.

nnichols

<a href="candidateDetails.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>&amp;search=<?php echo url_encode($_GET['search']); ?>"><?php echo $row_Candidates['FirstName']; ?>&nbsp;<?php echo $row_Candidates['LastName']; ?></a>

Iain

No joy I'm afraid - the results page gets as far as displaying the ID of the first matching result, and the background style of the the cell where the FirstName field should go ie :

<td class="idcell"><?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?></td>
<td class="fieldcell">

But after that nothing else is displayed - neither the rest of the table, or any of the rest of the page, ie the footer at the bottom.

EDIT - I played around with it a bit, and it works if I take out the 'url_encode' text - presume this isn't a major issue?

nnichols

You should have the url_encode() function in there. I suggest you play around with some debug settings to find out what was causing the error with the function. Set

error_reporting(E_ALL);

Iain

I've noticed an issue with this as it stands - at the moment it's only highlighting words which are next to each other,

ie if I seached on 'highlight this phrase' it would all be highlighted, but if I searched on 'highlight phrase' it wouldn't highlight 'highlight' and 'phrase'.

Is there anywhere in particular

error_reporting(E_ALL);

needs to go?

nnichols

It should be at the very top of your script

Iain

I tried changing :

<a href="candidateSearchDetails2.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>&amp;search=<?php echo url_encode($_GET['search']); ?>"><?php echo $row_Candidates['FirstName']; ?>&nbsp;<?php echo $row_Candidates['LastName']; ?></a>

<a href="candidateSearchDetails2.php?CandidateID=<?php echo $row_Candidates['CandidateID']; ?>&amp;search=<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); echo url_encode($_GET['search']); ?>"><?php echo $row_Candidates['FirstName']; ?>&nbsp;<?php echo $row_Candidates['LastName']; ?></a>

and adding in

<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); ?>

At the very top of the page - but neither made any difference - with the url_encode back in, the page just dies at that point, with no error message anywhere.

Iain

nnichols

check your php.ini to make sure that "display_errors = On"

Iain

The only php.ini I can find is a text file in ../applications/MAMP/bin/PHP4/zend/etc (on a mac).

Is that it? Or should it be something else in the web project's folder?

nnichols

Try it and see what happens!

Iain

I already did - changed the text but it didn't seem to do anything.