How to Build a Paging System Web Browser Interface

Add a paging system to make it easier to browse through a website.

A paging system is used on a website when many records are returned from a database and they won't fit on a page without excessive scrolling. You see this method used in search engines and ecommerce sites. Adding a paging system will make it easier for the user to browse through the products on the page.

Things You'll Need

• HTML Editor
• MySQL

Instructions

1. Open at HTML editor (such as Notepad) by clicking on "Start," adding "Notepad" to the search box that appears and clicking "Ok".

2. Create a PHP page called products.php. This will display a list of pages containing products.

3. Set variables for the number of results per page and name of the page (copy and paste the following code):

   $PSYS_RESPP = 20;

   $PSYS_DEFURL = "tmtm.php";

4. Get the number of products in database:

   $PSYS_COUNT = mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM `products`;"));

5. Store the current page number and escape any invalid characters:

   $PSYS_PAGENUM = $_GET["page"];

   $PSYS_PAGENUM = mysql_real_escape_string($PSYS_PAGENUM);

6. If there is no page number set then set the page to 1 as you are on the first page:

   if (!$PSYS_PAGENUM || $PSYS_PAGENUM < 1 || $PSYS_PAGENUM > ($PSYS_COUNT["COUNT(*)"] / $PSYS_RESPP) + 1)

   $PSYS_PAGENUM = 1;

7. Display the list of products for the page:

   $strSQL = "SELECT * FROM products LIMIT $PSYS_PAGENUM, $PSYS_RESPP";

   $result = mysql_query("$strSQL") or die(mysql_error());

   while(list($productname)= mysql_fetch_row($result))

   { echo $productname;

   }

   The variables $PSYS_PAGENUM and $PSYS_RESPP set the start and end products for the individual page.

8. Set the link to the previous page of products, when scrolling through the pages:

   if (($PSYS_PAGENUM * $PSYS_RESPP) - ($PSYS_RESPP * 2) >= 0)

   echo "<a href=\"" . $PSYS_DEFURL . "?page=" . ($PSYS_PAGENUM - 1) . "\">« Previous</a> |";

   else

   echo "« Previous |";

9. Create the page numbers and output:

   for ($PSYS_TEMP = 1; ($PSYS_TEMP * $PSYS_RESPP) - $PSYS_RESPP < $PSYS_COUNT["COUNT(*)"]; $PSYS_TEMP++)

   {

   if ($PSYS_TEMP == $PSYS_PAGENUM)

   echo " " . $PSYS_TEMP . " |";

   else

   echo " <a href=\"" . $PSYS_DEFURL . "?page=" . $PSYS_TEMP . "\">" . $PSYS_TEMP . "</a> |";

   }

10. Add the link to take user to the next page of products:

    if ($PSYS_PAGENUM * 20 < $PSYS_COUNT["COUNT(*)"])

    echo " <a href=\"" . $PSYS_DEFURL . "?page=" . ($PSYS_PAGENUM + 1) . "\">Next »</a>";

    else

    echo " Next »";

11. Set up the variable to contain the next page number:

    $PSYS_PAGENUM = ($PSYS_PAGENUM * $PSYS_RESPP) - $PSYS_RESPP;

12. Save the file and run in your browser. You will see a list of pages numbered from 1 upwards and "Previous" and "Next" links to connect to other pages.

References

• PHPeasystep.com:PHP Pagination