[RESOLVED] Need strategy - big time!

[lelyea]

Working on my 'final project' for a college level php course. My final project is a store selling ebooks . . .

Hopefully I can describe my problem accurately . . .

My index page has a search function which posts a 'searchterm' and a 'searchtype'
to a new php page named 'results.php'. Searchterm is a text box where user can enter words, and searchtype is a dropdown for 'title' 'author' or 'isbn'. This has worked for a long time. A snippet:

$searchtype=$_POST['searchtype'];
  $searchterm=$_POST['searchterm'];
  $searchterm= trim($searchterm);
  if (!$searchtype || !$searchterm) {
     echo 'You have not entered search details.  Please go back and try again.';
     exit;
  }

My problem has occured because I have now added a shopping cart display to the page, and links to the search results (which display book info & picture) to add items to the cart . . . With this line of code:

echo "<a href='cart.php?action=add_item&isbn=".$isbn."&qty=1'>Add Item To Shopping Cart</a>";

This line indeed adds the item to the cart (table in db) - however when the 'results.php' reloads it gives me:

You have not entered search details. Please go back and try again.
from above because there is no 'searchterm' or 'searchtype'.

So, how can I pass those variables from 'results.php' to 'cart.php' and back to 'results.php' . . . Or, what should I do?

As always any help is truly appreciated!

Thanks
Len

[etully]

Good question. The problem is that ALL of your PHP code is running when you get to the next page. You need to make sure that if they add something to their cart, then the only code that runs is the PHP code for the cart. Same is true for the search.

So you need a way to know WHICH action is being taken. Fortunately, the "Add-To-Cart" function has an action already (?action=add_item&)

So now on your home page, you need to modify your search form so that it has an action too. Find the <form> and </form> tags for your search form. Somewhere in between, add this: <input type=hidden name=action value="search">

Now find the PHP that does your search. Wrap this code around it:

if ($action=="search") {
// your search code goes here
}

This way, your search code will ONLY run when someone actually did a search. If they add something to their basket, then action will equal "add_item" so the search code won't run.