[WEB4LIB] Re: Modified "get" action for forms?

[Chris Shaffer]

Unfortunately, this solution uses a redirect, which disables the user's 
back button, which is something I need to avoid.

Chris Shaffer
shaffer at uic.edu

At 11/8/00 06:32 AM, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Chris Shaffer" <shaffer at uic.edu>
>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 5:22 PM
>Subject: [WEB4LIB] Modified "get" action for forms?
>
>
> > I have a database search form with many input fields, only a few of which
> > are used in the average search.  I'd like the search logic to be embedded
> > in the URL so that search results pages can be bookmarks or
> > favorites.  However, action="get" puts all the fields in the URL, which
> > results in a very long URL.  I'd like to generate a URL that only includes
> > non-null input fields.  Is there any way to do this that 1) does not use
> > javascript and 2) does not disable the browser back button via redirect?
> >
> > FYI, our web server is Unix, Apache, PHP, MySQL.
> > -----
>
>I dunno from PHP, but your script should be able to:
>
>   Examine the QUERY_STRING environment variable to
>   see if there are null values
>
>   If there are null values,
>     strip them out of the
>     QUERY_STRING and
>
>     send a redirect to itself
>
>   If there are no null values, execute the search
>
>The user will end up seeing only non-null values in the URL.
>
>Thomas Dowling
>Ohio Library and Information Network
>tdowling at ohiolink.edu