I apologize for how confusing this might get. I'm using PHP to pull items from a SQL database. This is the relevant portion of the code from my main results page:

PHP Code:

// see if any rows were returned
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
// yes
// print them one after another


echo "<table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 class=box_width_cont product><tr>";
$i = 0;
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {

if ($i == 3)
{
echo "</tr><tr>";
$i = 0;
}

echo "<td width=33%>";

echo "<a class='thumbnail' href='javascript:void(0)'><img src='images/3stone/rings/".$row[0]."fronts.jpg'>";

echo "<span><img src='images/3stone/rings/".$row[0]."front.jpg'></span></a><br>";

echo "<font color=#855b63><b>".$row[1]."<br>".$row[2]."<br>".$row[6]." Cut<br>Size: ".$row[3]."</b><br><br></font><font color=#855b63 size=3><b>".$row[9]."</b></font><br><br>";

echo "<form action='details.php' method='post'><input type='image' src='images/button_details.gif' name='0' value='".$row[0]."'></form><br><img height='2' src='images/spacer.gif'><br><img src='images/button_add_to_cart1.gif'><br><br><br>";

echo "</td>";

$i++;

}



echo "</table>";

} 


As you can see, I have a details button under each row. I'm using a form POST method to send $row[0], which is the item number, to details.php when the button is clicked. Here is the query from details.php with the variable plugged in.

PHP Code:

$query = "SELECT * FROM wwjitems WHERE item = '".$_POST["0"]."'"; 


Details.php is a page that returns just one result with more details on that particular item. Everything works great, with one little problem. When someone bookmarks details.php and comes back later, they get a blank page. Is there any way around this, or will I have to use a different method for creating the single item page?

Probably not the best way, but i would suggest using cookies or use GET instead of POST.

Does your page contain any PII or anything like that? If it's ok for the public to see the use GET to allow them to share the link, if it's not ok for the public to see but you still want them to be able to come back to it in that browser session only use sessions, if it's not ok for the public to see and you're willing to take the risk then use cookies. POST is known for this 'issue' that you don't save the results in a bookmarkable way.

The problem is that if $_POST isn't set, then no items are selected.

PHP Code:

$query = "SELECT * FROM wwjitems WHERE item = '".$_POST["0"]."'"; 


So what you really want to do, is if no item is found, send them back to the list of items so that they can get to one that will work. Maybe try something along the lines of

PHP Code:

if(!isset($_POST["0"]))
        header('Location:itemListingPage.php');
$query = "SELECT * FROM wwjitems WHERE item = '".$_POST["0"]."'";