Session variables not available in a started session across pages - php

Question

The goal is to persist some data between pages after a refresh when a user selects a db search filter criteria from 6 select dropdown boxes on the page using session_start() and the SESSION variables are set to the 6 select-box values the user selected, as a search button is clicked calling a Laravel controller action, where the SESSION is session_start() being begun and the 6 select-box variables are being set for the SESSION.
The goal is to reset the select boxes from session variables populated when the search button is clicked retaining the select box selections-criteria selected by user so they do not have to reselect the 6 select-boxes again. Those select-box selection values are stored in session variables;
Upon refresh after a successful search is being returned the SESSION variables are read in the masterlayout.blade html section to programmatically to reselect the previous search-filter selection the user had entered as the retrun page is rendered with the masterlayout.blade including the nav.blade.
In the masterlayout.blade (which includes the nav.blade which has the select-boxes) in the Laravel template system is where I READ these SESSION variables upon refresh of a user-search, then the SESSION variables set from the controller called from the button click reset the select boxes to values in the SESSION vars.
But, that masterlayout.blade template is called from other pages as it and search-nav appear on other pages which may be used for a search or not, before or after a user has done a filtered search.
The problem is when other pages are requested, even after a search, the SESSION variables seem to be unavailable, reset to nothing or whatever--- I cannot figure out as I did not destroy the session and they should be available from any page after being set.
But I get the _SESSION variables unavailable error when other pages are requested.
If you know how to fix this let me know.
If you know how to persist the select-box values between pages in a better manner let me know. I don't want to right to a db to do this, but maybe there is a javascript way to retain variables across pages.
Thanks

Answer 1

This is in the controller accessing post data from button click which calls the controller
//colvals
session_start();
$bidded=$_GET["bidded"];
$_SESSION["bidded"] = $bidded;
$state=$_GET["state"];
$_SESSION["state"] = $state;
$city=$_GET["city"];
$_SESSION["city"] = $city;
$biddertype=$_GET["biddertype"];
$_SESSION["biddertype"] = $biddertype;
$job=$_GET["job"];
$_SESSION["job"] = $job;
$subjob=$_GET["subjob"];
$_SESSION["subjob"] = $subjob;
In the search filter navigation page the select box values from previous user search (stored in above code from controller) is set by this:
<script>
document.getElementById("bidded").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
document.getElementById("state").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
document.getElementById("city").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
document.getElementById("biddertype").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
document.getElementById("job").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
document.getElementById("subjob").addEventListener("load", mySelect());
function mySelect() {
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['bidded'];?>").selected = "true";
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['state'];?>").selected = "true";
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['city'];?>").selected = "true";
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['biddertype'];?>").selected = "true";
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['job'];?>").selected = "true";
document.getElementById("<?php echo $_SESSION['subjob'];?>").selected = "true";
}
</script>
Javascript session and local variables are not of any use in this case because when the page refreshes it reads the default state of the select boxes and overwrites the ones stored prior to the search input submission.
The problem was other pages would use the same template and complain about no _SESSION vars defined, when I did not destroy the session, but I guess only one script can access it, even if those pages have none. It requires a form submit to set the session filter select vals again.
Because this is a unique function it may end up having its own template as worrying about 100 other pages session vars is more of a PITA than a second template. I'll give cookies a shot but did not want to expose query data on user end.
Thanks for the input...