Sessions to pass variables through pagination?

[turpentyne]

I have a search page that then submits to a php page that queries the database. I've been struggling to figure out how to paginate it, but I think I've narrowed down the problem. I didn't realize $_POST results didn't pass through when people clicked the pagination links at the bottom. I verified this by replacing  the LIKE variable with a specific word and it worked.

 

I'm trying to learn how to set up sessions, thinking this might solve my problem. Doesn't seem to be working. Can I get some suggestions on how to do this? What's happening now is that it's pulling a random 8 pages that have nothing to do with the original query.

 

I start my entire page with:

<?php

session_start();

$_SESSION['leafshape'] = $_post['select1'];
$_SESSION['leafcolor'] = $_post['select2'];
$_SESSION['leafvein'] = $_post['select3'];
$_SESSION['leafmargin'] = $_post['select4'];

$leafshape = $_SESSION['leafshape']; 
$leafcolor = $_SESSION['leafcolor'];
$leafvein = $_SESSION['leafvein']; 
$leafmargin = $_SESSION['leafmargin']; 

 

and I'm setting up the queries like this:

$query = "SELECT COUNT(*) as num
                    FROM
                        descriptors
                    JOIN
                        plantae ON (descriptors.plant_id = plantae.plant_name)
                    WHERE
                        descriptors.leaf_shape LIKE '{$_SESSION['leafshape']}'
                        AND descriptors.leaf_venation LIKE '{$_SESSION['leafvein']}'
                        AND descriptors.leaf_margin LIKE '{$_SESSION['leafmargin']}'";

 

I also tried replacing the '{$_SESSION['leafshape']}' in the query with the assigned variable $leafshape

 

 

[Crashthatch]

1) Should it be $_POST rather than $_post ?

2) If you have that posted part at the top of both page 1 and page 2 you'll get this problem:

 

At the very start of your script (on page 2) the $_SESSION['leafshape'] variable will contain the correct value which was set on page 1 (you can check this by putting in var_dump( $_SESSION) immediately after the session_start()), but you're immediately overwriting it with the (now empty) $_post['select1']. You need to check if $_post['select1'] is empty, and if it is then don't include the line:

$_SESSION['leafshape'] = $_post['select1'];

[turpentyne]

Hmm. I think I've just run into a whole different problem now. I didn't notice I hadn't capitalized $_POST. Once I did, now the query only pulls one record, and has no pagination links at the bottom. uh-oh. (it should pull 6 records, at 2 per page)

 

The Session script is not at the top of page 1, because that's just a simple html form that sends to the second page made with php. I dropped in the var_dump( $_SESSION) and it shows the variable is filled. So maybe that part is ok?

 

 

[sasa]

<?php

session_start();
if(isset($_POST)){
    $_SESSION['leafshape']  = $_POST['select1'];
    $_SESSION['leafcolor']  = $_POST['select2'];
    $_SESSION['leafvein']   = $_POST['select3'];
    $_SESSION['leafmargin'] = $_POST['select4'];
}
$leafshape = $_SESSION['leafshape']; 
$leafcolor = $_SESSION['leafcolor'];
$leafvein = $_SESSION['leafvein']; 
$leafmargin = $_SESSION['leafmargin']; 

[turpentyne]

ah... makes sense to add isset.

 

unfortunately I still have the same problem.  only one record, and no pagination.