Keeping a php variable that is retrieved via _GET when page reloads - php

Question

I have a page that is the result of a php query click (individual job list). I want to use an ORDER BY so the individuals can order their results based on either due date, job name, etc.
The problem seems to come into play when the user clicks on the variable table header. This causes a page refresh and the variable from the _GET is obviously then gone. I tried setting it as a cookie but I believe perhaps I am not setting this correctly.
This is in the top of the document:
<?php
if( $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=='GET' && isset( $_GET['assignee'] ) ){
$assignee = filter_input( INPUT_GET, 'assignee', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING );
}
$assignee_name = $assignee;
setcookie($assignee_name, time() + (86400 * 30), "/"); // 86400 = 1 day
?>
This is the PHP directly before the foreach loop:
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "jobs_usr1";
$password = "xxxxxxxxx";
$dbname = "jobs_users";
// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
$sql = "SELECT * FROM `jobs_canjobs` WHERE assignee = \"$assignee\"";
$orderBy = array('job_numb', 'job_name', 'due_date', 'show_date', 'status');
$order = 'type';
if (isset($_GET['orderBy']) && in_array($_GET['orderBy'], $orderBy)) {
$order = $_GET['orderBy'];
}
if(isset($_COOKIE[$assignee_name])){
$sql = "SELECT * FROM `jobs_canjobs` WHERE assignee = \"$assignee_name\" ORDER BY $order";
}
$results = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
?>
Then in the results table, under the table heads, I have this:
<table>
<tr style="background-color: cadetblue">
<th><b>Job ID#</b></th>
<th><b>Title</b></th>
<th><b>Due Date</b> | <b>Show Date</b></th>
<th><b>Status</b></th>
</tr>
<?php
foreach ($results as $result){
$job_numb = $result['job_numb'];
$assignee = $result['assignee'];
$job_name = $result['job_name'];
$due_date = $result['due_date'];
$show_date = $result['show_date'];
$status = $result['status'];
?>
<tr>
<td>
<p><?php echo $job_numb;?></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><?php echo $job_name;?></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><?php echo $due_date;?> | <?php echo $show_date;?></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><?php echo $status;?></p>
</td>
</tr>
<? php } ?>
</table>
Without the reordering $order, it works just fine - but once someone clicks on the th with the order by, the variable disappears, and I am not sure how to keep it even after a page reload.
Is there a way to keep this variable $assigneeon the page so I can reference it again to display the results? I know it is the page refresh because the url after clicking does not contain the variable.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

The cool thing about PHP is you can just plonk it just about anywhere within HTML document
<th><a href="?orderBy=job_numb<?php if ( (isset($_GET['assignee'])) && (!empty($_GET['assignee'])) ){
echo '&assignee='.URL_ENCODE($_GET['assignee']);}?>"><b>Job ID#</b></a></th>
This first checks if that var is defined, and isn't defined as '' aka empty
then appending to your hard coded URL..
Putting that all on one line to ensure no line breaks are introduced to the URL.
So the resulting link will end with &assignee=$VAR where $VAR is the previously set $_GET['assignee']
PS while working on scripts I always add this to teh top so I can see errors without looking at log files
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(-1);