pagination and url encoding help - php

Question

<?php $name=$_POST['name']; ?>
<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
<input type="text" name="name">
<input type="submit" value="GO" name="submit">
</form>
<?php
include ('db.php');
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
mysql_query ("INSERT INTO example (name) VALUES('$name')") or die(mysql_error());
}
if (!isset($_GET['startrow']) or !is_numeric($_GET['startrow'])) {
$startrow = 0;
}
else {
$startrow = (int)$_GET['startrow'];
}
$query = "SELECT * FROM example ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT $startrow, 20";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo "<li>";
echo $row['name'] ." "." <a href= 'like.php?quote=" . urlencode( $row['name'] ) . "'>Click Here</a>";
echo "</li>";
}
echo 'Next';
?>
I want to make my page links hidden , how can i make then hidden so that a user cant edit it.
2nd question,
currently i am showing total 10 records on each page and then a next page button , but the next button is keep showing even when there is no more records...! how to remove a next page button when records ended. ??
line number 28 is the link to pages which can be easyily editable by any user, i wnat to make them secure (using ID)
and line 35 is n'next' page link , this link should not be appear when number of records ended

Answer 1

I can't think of a reason why you really should hide the page numbers from the user in the link. Keeping them in the query string as $_GET variables is probably the most common practice i know of in this specific case of paging.
I would do validation on the numebrs being recieved in the $_GET variables, since this could often lead to SQL Injection and other problems... Make sure it's a number, possibly divisible by 10 (if that's how you like the site to be), perhaps not bigger than a certain defined number, etc...
If you REALLY still don't agree, and you want to hide it, then you could always do that by saving cookie on the user's computer (this is still exposed to user in some way) or save the page number in the session (although this seems like a big waste of server resources to me!).
About your second question - There are so many possibilities to this...
Here's one way :
Create an sql query that queries how many rows are there to your table.
Let's say the number is 55. You put that into a hidden value.
If you're displaying 10 items on a page then you know the last page is number 6 (showing items 50-55, if you start counting at page number 1).
Simple php check when page loads: if ($_GET['page'] == 5) then you don't display the next button.
something like this (skipping out validation checks and the sql query) :
<input type="hidden" value="<?php echo $itemCount;?>">
<?php
if ($_GET['page'] < ($itemCount \ 10))
{
echo "<a href=\"items.php?page=".($_GET['page']+1)."\">";
}
?>
Using this, I would add a check to make sure the user doesn't enter a number bigger than this number as well, and if they do, just redirect them to the last number they can.