Linking to a PHP search result

GallantGifts

Hey Everyone!

our site uses a PHP search engine for our product database (http://www.gallantgifts.com/dcw_cart/search.php). The problem I am running into is that I would like to be able to link to search result pages, but the URL address remains the same even after a search.

Is there a way to get around this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Josh

bradgrafelman

Well, you could go one of two different routes with this:

Use the GET method to send the query to your PHP scripts; that would make URLs look like "search.php?q=Golden+Foobar" and each request would simply trigger your search procedures.
Cache the search results and assign each unique search an id that you store in a database. This would normally be considered if you have a fairly large database (e.g. this forum and all of its posts) and wanted to lower the cost to your DB server by caching queries.

GallantGifts

Thanks brad,

so in the first option:
Would I need to change POST to GET before this could become an option?

in the second option:
We do have a large database (750,000 products) that are searched. Do you recall these cached id's in the PHP code or through a URL string?

Thanks!

bradgrafelman

GallantGifts wrote:
so in the first option:
Would I need to change POST to GET before this could become an option?

Right; this would ensure that the data sent to the search script is contained in the URL, which is the only piece of information you share between bookmarking a page or sending the URL to someone else.

GallantGifts wrote:
in the second option:
We do have a large database (750,000 products) that are searched. Do you recall these cached id's in the PHP code or through a URL string?

I'm not too knowledgeable in the best practices for caching database queries and things of that nature; I'd have to direct you to the gurus over in the Database forum.