Laravel (php) save search options - php

Question

So i am using laravel 5.2 and i am building a search form, there is multiple search queries and options.
I have been wracking my head trying to think of ways to save the users search and auto fill the form when they visit the search page OR even auto search when they visit it.
So far I have been setting the GET's as variables and auto fill in the text fields but that only lasts for the time they are on the page which is not what i am after,
I have thought about saving the gets into the database as separate fields and when they search and pulling them when they are on the page and filling in each field but then how do I auto search?
Or do I save it as 1 string as the get from the URL eg, u=username&p=postcode
and set the route up to check if the user has a search saved and if they visit /search they get redirected to the url+ get options saved in the db. (no clue how to do this either.)
Now the hardest part even with the gets I have fields that are multiple select like genders and sort by. How do you auto fill in those?
Below is my code for just the form
<?php
if(isset($_GET['u'])) { $username = $_GET['u']; } else { $username = ''; }
if(isset($_GET['p'])) { $postcode = $_GET['p']; } else { $postcode = ''; }
if(isset($_GET['o'])) { $orderby = $_GET['o']; } else { $orderby = ''; }
?>
{{ Form::open(['method' => 'GET']) }}
<div id="filter-panel" class="filter-panel collapse in">
<div class="panel panel-default">
<div class="panel-body">
<form class="form-inline" role="form">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-xs-6 col-sm-2">
{{ Form::input('search', 'u', $username, ['class' => 'form-control input-sm', 'placeholder' => 'username...']) }}
</div><!-- form group [search] -->
<div class="col-xs-6 col-sm-2">
{{ Form::input('search', 'p', $postcode, ['class' => 'form-control input-sm', 'placeholder' => 'postcode...']) }}
</div><!-- form group [search] -->
<div class="col-xs-6 col-sm-3">
<select id="attractedToGender" multiple="multiple" name="g[]" class="input-sm" >
<option value="1">Females</option>
<option value="2">Males</option>
<option value="3">Others</option>
</select>
</div><!--END form-group col-xs-6 col-sm-4-->
<div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-3">
<select id="pref-orderby" class="input-sm" name="o[]" multiple="multiple">
<option value="1">Photo Only</option>
<option value="2">User Type</option>
<option value="3">Last Online</option>
</select>
</div> <!-- form group [order by] -->
<div class="col-xs-6 col-sm-2 pull-right text-right">
{{Form::button('<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"></i> Search', array('type' => 'submit', 'class' => 'btn btn-primary btn-sm', 'style' => 'margin:0;'))}}
</div><!--END form-group col-xs-6-->
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{{ Form::close() }}

Answer 1

There are few ways to do that. The best ways are dedicated model and saving data as JSON object.
Model. You can create dedicated table with User has many Searches relationship. And just save object into this table.
JSON. You can serialize object with ->toJson() method and persist in in a users table. Just add json type column:
$table->json('options');
In both cases you're working directly with the object.