codeigniter session values lost on second page - codeigniter

Question

I have lengthy search form and i am trying to keep the form values in session. I use codeigniter pagination, so i need to store the values entered in the search form in the session (i am trying to avoid storing them in the database)
This problem bother me couple of days and i am unable to solve it. Here is the code. For the sake of clarification i provide the comments for each line of my code:
// my submit button named search_button has been clicked
if ($this->input->post('search_button')) {
// all the values from the form are stored in array
$formValues = $this->input->post(NULL, TRUE);
// i assign the values of $formValues array to session
$this->session->set_userdata('formValues', $formValues);
// i store the values in local variable
$mySessData = $this->session->userdata('formValues');
// i count the values of the $formValues to be sure how many fields i get back
// reason for that is that my form is built dynamically
// returns 19 if the form has been submitted.
// when i submit the form, i get 19
echo "Count of form values is now: " . count($formValues);
// i print the $formValues array, to be sure that it return the form values
// and yes, it does if the form has been submitted.
// see the $formValues returns section bellow to see what is returned
echo "<pre>";
print_r($formValues);
echo "</pre>";
// i print my local variable to ensure that variable $mySessData is not empty
// see the section $mySessData retruns (1) to see returned values
echo "Confirm that sess data has been set up";
echo "<pre>";
print_r($mySessData);
echo "</pre>";
} else {
// else, means that form has not been submitted but that controller has been called from the next link
// in the pagination links. This always return empty array, that is nothing...
echo "<pre>";
print_r($mySessData);
echo "</pre>";
}
If the form has been submitted, the $formValues returns the following:
Array
(
[addtypeid] =>
[isnew] =>
[orderby] =>
[geographicareaid] =>
[catid] => 1
[catid2] =>
[manufacturerid] =>
[modelid] =>
[yearofmanufacturing_from] =>
[yearofmanufacturing_to] =>
[hoursused_from] =>
[hoursused_to] =>
[horsepowers_from] =>
[horsepowers_to] =>
[price_from] =>
[price_to] =>
[colorid] =>
[isdamaged] =>
[search_button] => Submit‚
)
My variable $mySessData returns the very same dataif the form has been submitted:
Array
(
[addtypeid] =>
[isnew] =>
[orderby] =>
[geographicareaid] =>
[catid] => 1
[catid2] =>
[manufacturerid] =>
[modelid] =>
[yearofmanufacturing_from] =>
[yearofmanufacturing_to] =>
[hoursused_from] =>
[hoursused_to] =>
[horsepowers_from] =>
[horsepowers_to] =>
[price_from] =>
[price_to] =>
[colorid] =>
[isdamaged] =>
[search_button] => Submit‚
)
And on the end, if i click on pagination link
$config['base_url'] = site_url('/searchresults/display/'.$limit.'/');
, which point to the same controller and same method, well..i get an empty array.
Any help will be appreciated.
Regards, John

Answer 1

I think It would be better if use method="get" in your form. posting your form with get instead of post would be more preferable in case of search form as u wont need to maintain any session and no need of storing values in database also. you can easily access a feild anytime using
$this ->input->get('fild_name');
You can optimize your code this way and you dont need to maintain session variables as you will always have the search feild valies in your url. Using session another problem is with unsetting the session variable.
I personally dont think that creating a session variable just to maintain pagination is not a good idea.Moreover in a search form there is no need of security so you can send your form using "get" insted of "post"