List display problem

Hi Kurt!

Well, that's actually working as intended -- random means just that: Every time the list is generated, it's going to pull in random listings, so some of those might be duplicated.

Can you let me know what the intended result is? Maybe we can come up with a different way of setting it up. :)

Donna,

I would expect the list to be generated differently each time it was generated, but I would not expect the list to be regenerated every time the user moves from the first page of a partial list to the next.



If the list generated theses results: D,R,H,E,B,U,M,W,X,U,Z,Q,Y,P,C,T,X,N,I,G,O,... and you were only displaying 5 record, the PREV , Page 1 of 3 NEXT, I would expect this:

D,R,H,E,B prev - next

U,M,W,X,U prev - next

Z,Q,Y,P,C prev - next

T,X,N,I,G prev - next

NOT THIS:

D,R,H,E,B prev - next

R,M,Z,D,C prev - next

Z,D,X,T,B prev - next

Z,M,D,R,B prev - next

That does not represent PREVIOUS and NEXT, but a NEW LIST comprising a completely new random order after each PREV or NEXT is selected.

I expect the next page to be a continuation of the original list until the list end is reached, and the previous page to repeat exactly the ordered items on the preceding page.



Kurt

Hi Kurt,

The RAND() function is actually from MySQL, so we don't have any control over how it works. It's not really meant to work with prev/next pages.

To show multiple pages of random records in the same order you'd need to store the sequence information somewhere. You'd either need to update the random order at set intervals and store that or store it on a per user basis.

It can get pretty complicated pretty fast and require some custom PHP/MySQL. Another way you could do is print the entire list on one page and use javascript to only show some records and page through them. But that would require some javascript.

Sorry there's no straightforward way to do what you want. If I can think of any other solutions I'll post.

Dave and Donna,

That could really be a show stopper! For any type of sales listing, Auto, Homes, etc, especially where there will potentially be a few hundred record, generating the complete page and then parsing the results with java script to display a true NEXT/PREVIOUS wolud be pretty futile.

Is there any way to store the ordered list of results (INDEX), by user, in a server side file keyed to the user session or a session variable? That would allow the retreival of the next(X) records or previous(X) records to be selected. This would result in a true NEXT PAGE or PREVIOUS PAGE

The file would have to expire after a set period of non-access, like a session id and I guess that could present a problem as a watchdog routine would need to be running all the time to clean up the [font "Verdana"]orphaned indexes.

I know there has to be a solution, as my competition already has their databases working this way.with hundreds of records and many pages of display. Each session maintains the same ordered results, but each session is generated completely differently.

Hi Kurt,

It's all possible, but not supported by default in CMS Builder. Can you post some links of other sites that work like this and let me know so more details about what you're trying to do? You can email me directly at dave@interactivetools.com if it's confidential.

Hope that helps!

Dave,



I dove into the source of the pages I emailed you and it looks like you were right on. They seem to be outputting the entire results list and then parsing the pages using some Java Script.......