Hello. I have been following a great tutorial that I found regarding searching a database:
Tutorial: http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorial/simple-sql-search
When I used this and ran it from my server (doing a search of the database), I bookmarked the page; my question relates to the next step: When I return to the page via the bookmark the actual search has been saved and is displayed, not just the search form. I do not understand this.
I need it to be so that each time a user goes to this search page, no prior search is displayed and it is, of course, available for a new search. Is this issue related to sessions? And if so, how?
Below is the actual code I am using for this search function/page:
<?php
/*****************************
* Simple SQL Search Tutorial by Frost
* of Slunked.com
******************************/
$dbHost = 'mysql7.000webhost.com'; // localhost will be used in most cases
// set these to your mysql database username and password.
$dbUser = '********';
$dbPass = '*******';
$dbDatabase = '**********'; // the database you put the table into.
$con = mysql_connect($dbHost, $dbUser, $dbPass) or trigger_error("Failed to connect to MySQL Server. Error: " . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbDatabase) or trigger_error("Failed to connect to database {$dbDatabase}. Error: " . mysql_error());
// Set up our error check and result check array
$error = array();
$results = array();
// First check if a form was submitted.
// Since this is a search we will use $_GET
if (isset($_GET['search'])) {
$searchTerms = trim($_GET['search']);
$searchTerms = strip_tags($searchTerms); // remove any html/javascript.
if (strlen($searchTerms) < 3) {
$error[] = "Search terms must be longer than 3 characters.";
}else {
$searchTermDB = mysql_real_escape_string($searchTerms); // prevent sql injection.
}
// If there are no errors, lets get the search going.
if (count($error) < 1) {
$searchSQL = "SELECT id, name, descrip FROM people WHERE ";
// grab the search types.
$types = array();
$types[] = isset($_GET['id'])?"`id` LIKE '%{$searchTermDB}%'":'';
$types[] = isset($_GET['name'])?"`name` LIKE '%{$searchTermDB}%'":'';
$types[] = isset($_GET['descrip'])?"`descrip` LIKE '%{$searchTermDB}%'":'';
$types = array_filter($types, "removeEmpty"); // removes any item that was empty (not checked)
if (count($types) < 1)
$types[] = "`name` LIKE '%{$searchTermDB}%'"; // use the body as a default search if none are checked
$andOr = isset($_GET['matchall'])?'AND':'OR';
$searchSQL .= implode(" {$andOr} ", $types) . " ORDER BY `name`"; // order by title.
$searchResult = mysql_query($searchSQL) or trigger_error("There was an error.<br/>" . mysql_error() . "<br />SQL Was: {$searchSQL}");
if (mysql_num_rows($searchResult) < 1) {
$error[] = "The search term provided {$searchTerms} yielded no results.";
}else {
$results = array(); // the result array
$i = 1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($searchResult)) {
$results[] = "{$i}: {$row['id']}<br />{$row['name']}<br />{$row['descrip']}<br /><br />";
$i++;
}
}
}
}
function removeEmpty($var) {
return (!empty($var));
}
?>
<html>
<title>My Simple Search Form</title>
<style type="text/css">
#error {
color: red;
}
</style>
<body>
<?php echo (count($error) > 0)?"The following had errors:<br /><span id=\"error\">" . implode("<br />", $error) . "</span><br /><br />":""; ?>
<form method="GET" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" name="searchForm">
Search For: <input type="text" name="search" value="<?php echo isset($searchTerms)?htmlspecialchars($searchTerms):''; ?>" /><br />
Search In:<br />
Body: <input type="checkbox" name="body" value="on" <?php echo isset($_GET['body'])?"checked":''; ?> /> |
Title: <input type="checkbox" name="title" value="on" <?php echo isset($_GET['title'])?"checked":''; ?> /> |
Description: <input type="checkbox" name="desc" value="on" <?php echo isset($_GET['desc'])?"checked":''; ?> /><br />
Match All Selected Fields? <input type="checkbox" name="matchall" value="on" <?php echo isset($_GET['matchall'])?"checked":''; ?><br /><br />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search!" />
</form>
<?php echo (count($results) > 0)?"Your search term: {$searchTerms} returned:<br /><br />" . implode("", $results):""; ?>
</body>
</html>Thank-you in advance for any help or explanation as to what to do next.
~Matty
