Make the PHP MySql Search Engine and Pagination work - php

Question

I don't know how to make the search through another table. how should i do that?
the table name is comments and i want to search for all the post stored in the column name kom
Another thing is that i cant get the pagination start working...
I started the pagination within an else statment because i only need it when i get more than 1 result.
I can get the page links showing and limit the search posting showing but when i click on one off the links i cant get to the next page
Heres the code
<?php
$search = $_POST["search"];
$field = $_POST["field"];
if($_POST["submit"] && $search)
{
echo "<div id='result'>";
echo "<h2>Resultat</h2>";
$search = strtoupper($search);
$search = strip_tags($search);
$search = trim($search);
$query = "SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE title LIKE '%$search%'
UNION
SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE post LIKE '%$search%'";
$result = mysql_query($query, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
$matches = mysql_num_rows($result);
if($matches == 0)
//code if serch didnt result any results
else if($matches == 1)
//code if the matches only 1
else
{
$per_page = 4;
$pages = ceil($matches / $per_page);
$page = (isset($_GET['page'])) ? (int)$_GET['page']: 1;
$start = ($page - 1) * $per_page;
$query2 = "SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE title LIKE '%$search%'
UNION
SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE post LIKE '%$search%' LIMIT $start, $per_page";
$result2 = mysql_query($query2, $conn) or die(mysql_error());
echo "<font size='-1'>Sökningen $search gav $matches resultat</font><br/>";
while ($r2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2))
{
$id = $r["id"];
$title = $r["title"];
$post = $r["post"];
$time = $r["time"];
echo "<br/><strong><a href='comment.php?id=$id'>$title</a></strong><br/>";
echo "<font size='-1'>".substr($post, 0, 60)."</font><br/>";
echo "<font size='-1'>".substr($post, 60, 70)."</font><br/>";
echo "<font size='-3'>$time</font><br/>";
}
//theese are showin but cannot click of any of them
if($pages >= 1 && $page <= $pages)
{
for($nr = 1; $nr <= $pages; $nr++)
{
if($nr == $page)
echo "<a href='?page=".$nr."' style='font-size:20px;'>$nr</a>";
else
echo "<a href='?page=".$nr."' style='font-size:15px;'>$nr</a> ";
}
}
}
}
?>

Answer 1

Is there a specific reason you are using a UNION?
If not, you can change:
$query = "SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE title LIKE '%$search%'
UNION
SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE post LIKE '%$search%'";
to:
$query = "SELECT * FROM blogTable WHERE (title LIKE '%$search%') OR (post LIKE '%$search%')";
Anyway, I would never execute the same query twice, just get the first x results if no start parameter was given (for example a page number in the query string) and calculate the start point when a start parameter was given.
And if you want the total, use a COUNT(*) query or change your query:
$query = "SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS * FROM blogTable WHERE (title LIKE '%$search%') OR (post LIKE '%$search%')";

Answer 2

One thing that catches the eye is that the code you show is vulnerable to SQL injection.
Get rid of the strip_tags() (if it's for security, in which case it's useless) and do a mysql_real_escape_string() on every value you use in the search queries, or check whether the value is actually a number when using int columns.
Another thing is that the <font> tag is outmoded. The cool CSS way of styling text is having an external CSS stylesheet, and defining in it something like
span.small { font-size: 12px; color: green }
and then using it in the HTML like so:
<span class="small">Text goes here</span>
that said, this probably belongs on CodeReview.SE....

Answer 3

First, I always recommend to use GET method and not POST method for searches and filters, next, maybe this pagination php class can help you.