Codeigniter pagination with search term in uri

Question

I have a controller function that displays all records, I am using the pagination class to divide the records in pages. The controller looks a bit like that

class Example extends CI_Controller {

     [...]

     function All()
     {
       //Gets all the records
      //Pagination uri_segment set to 3
     }
}

Now i added the ability to search the records. I need the search term to be in the uri so the function is like function All($search_term = false). My issue is that the function may or may not have search terms. and depending on that, the uri segment of the pagination will change. without a search term uri_segment is 3, with it is 4.

Is there a way to fix that while using the same function and having the search term in the url?

Answer 1

It can be done various ways, personally I would do something simple like store it in session or cookie, but you can do URI as well refer to the CI forum for this one:
http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/59364/

Keep in mind that people may type non URI friendly strings into your search term and you will have to urlencode / decode the values in order to put them in a string, something you don't need with cookies, or sessions. But again I see the benefit for copy & pasting the link to someone for search results.

Answer 2

You can use get parameter for the query string. For example:

search.php

function search() {
  $q = $this->input->get('q');
  $page = $this->uri->segment(3);
  $results = $this->my_model->search($q, $page);
  $this->load->view('search_tpl', $results);
}

search_tpl.php

echo form_open(current_url(), array('method' => 'get'));
echo form_input('q');
echo form_submit('search', 'Search');
echo form_close();

Answer 3

You can use page_query_string in pagination $config variable

$config['page_query_string'] = TRUE;

After enabling this option, $_GET will be used to create pagination link.

Example result: example/all/?per_page=20

Answer 4

You simply change

$config["uri_segment"] = 3; to $config["uri_segment"] = 4;

and also change base_url like

$config["base_url"] = "site_url('student/index')".$search_key;

and get the search_key by

$key = $this->uri->segment(3);