On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 20:55 -0800, Daevid Vincent wrote: > I have an HTML form with a hundred or so elements on it, used for searching > a database. > > When the user submits the form (via GET) the URL is loaded with ALL of > these fields, and many of them are not even actually used in the search > criteria. > > https://mypse/dart2/ps_search.php?enter_date=2009-11-30&id_incident=&incide > nt_date=&incident_hh=0&incident_mm=0&id_urgency_level=0&problem_description > =&immediate_action=&unit_opened=&unit_authorized=&customer=&customer_contac > t=&customer_address=&customer_country=&id_location=0&passengers_onboard=&su > bmit=Search&part_number=&serial_number=&nomenclature=&manufacture_date=&mod > _level=&id_lru_condition=&repair_history=&ac_type=&tail_number=&id_system_t > ype=&id_lru_location=0&circuit_breaker=&circuit_breaker_amps=&seat_number=& > seat_vendor=&seat_column_zone=&seat_zone=&tc_holder=&stc_holder=&asr_mor=&i > mpounded=&id_authority=&id_region=&reported_by=&prepared_by=&preparer_locat > ion=&field_engineer=&id_attach_pictures=&id_attach_mlr=&id_attach_lopa=&cab > in_log=&parts_inspect=&id_organization=0&id_quality_engineer=0&car_number=& > close_date=&closed_by=&qa_comment=&id_priority=&id_action=0&id_incident_sta > tus=3&id_failure_type=&detail_status=&investigation_result=&osaka_action=&o > saka_request=&newvsrepeat=&related_incident=&unit_received_date=&unit_retur > ned_date=&tdr_to_pso_date=&tdr_date=&dcr_date=&dcr_reference_number=&ecr_da > te=&ecr_reference_number=&eco_date=&eco_reference_number=&service_bulletin_ > date=&sb_reference_number=&sil_issue_date=&sil_reference_number=&til_issue_ > date=&til_reference_number=&customer_letter_issue_date=&subassembly=&rdm=&p > svector=&oemmanuf=&defective_part_1=&defective_part_2=&defective_part_3=&de > fective_part_4= > > Is there some way via PHP/Apache Mod/Javascript to remove all the keys that > don't have any value in them and just distill this down to the > elements/keys that the user actually entered some input for? ie. defaulting > all the rest to 'blank'. > > In PHP, this would look something like this: > > foreach ($_GET as $k => $v) if ($v == '') unset($_GET[$k]); > > The problem as I see it, is that this "magic" happens when the user hits > "Submit", so not sure PHP has any way to intercept at that point. > Javascript might be able to do something on the "onClick" event or > "onSubmit" I suspect. But this seems like something that someone should > have solved before and common enough that I would think Apache could handle > it transparently with a directive or module enabled so I don't have to code > some hack on every page. > > I guess I could always redirect to some 'scrubber' page that strips them > out and redirects on to the refering page again, but that seems klunky. > > BTW, I want to use GET so that the page can be bookmarked for future > searches of the same data (or modified easily with different dates, etc.), > so that's why I don't use POST.
You can't remove the empty fields server-side, as they never reach the server. GET has a limit on the amount of data it may carry, which is reduced the longer the base URL is. If you need to send large amounts of data like that, you need to send it via POST. You can make minimal changes to your PHP code to allow for this. If you use $_GET in your PHP, swap it for $_REQUEST which contains both GET and POST data. Thanks, Ash http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk
