Passing an incremental variable into a URL

[Wolfman]

Hi guys

I have a subdomain with 79 individual episode pages, and I'd like to create a "Next >>" link that reads the number included in the top page name, then adds a value of one, sending the user to the next higher-numbered page within the acceptable range of 01 to 79. Page 79 would wrap back to page 01. This would allow the user to move incrementally while I continue to use a single, embedded navigation page for all episodes.

For example, each page is ep01.html, ep02.html through ep79.html. The embedded navigation page works by targeting "_top" in each link. If the user is on page ep27.html clicks "Next Episode >>" in the navigator they load ep28.html. However, if the user is on page 79, they load ep01.html because they are at the end of the page range.

Here's the full URL of page one:
http://series.airwolf.tv/episodes/ep01.html
and the pending embedded navigator page:
http://series.airwolf.tv/episodes/epguidefinder.html

[Atli]

Hi Wolfman.

You can use the $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] variable to find out the name of the current file, and use that to find out what the next file should be.

Something like:

# Get the current file name and index of the next file
$currentName = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], ".html");
$currentIndex = substr($currentName, -2);
$nextIndex = $currentIndex + 1;
 
# Make sure the index is not higher than 79
if($nextIndex > 79)
  $nextIndex = 0;
 
# Prefix the number with a 0 if it is less than 10
if($nextIndex < 10)
  $nextIndex = "0". $nextIndex;
 
# Print the link
echo "<a href=\"ep{$nextIndex}.html\">Next</a>";
 

[Wolfman]

Thanks. I added target=\"_top\" into the href since the link must call the parent window, but other wise embedded it as-is:

[PHP] <?php
# Get the current file name and index of the next file
$currentName = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], ".html");
$currentIndex = substr($currentName, -2);
$nextIndex = $currentIndex + 1;

# Make sure the index is not higher than 79
if($nextIndex > 79)
$nextIndex = 0;

# Prefix the number with a 0 if it is less than 10
if($nextIndex < 10)
$nextIndex = "0". $nextIndex;

# Print the link
echo "<a href=\"ep{$nextIndex}.html\" target=\"_top\">Next Episode >></a>";
?>[/PHP]

However, each time the link is clicked, it returns to page 01 only. Check it out by selecting any of the first five episodes here:

http://series.airwolf.tv/episodes/

You'll see the resulting "next episode>>"link in the little navigator window on the left.

Wolfman

[robin1983]

I gone through of your code, and i think the problem is in line
[PHP]
echo "<a href=\"ep{$nextIndex}.html\" target=\"_top\">Next Episode >></a>";
[/PHP]

if possible plz try like this
[PHP]
echo "<a href=\"ep.{$nextIndex}.html\" target=\"_top\">Next Episode >></a>";
[/PHP]
ok best of luck ..

Thanks. I added target=\"_top\" into the href since the link must call the parent window, but other wise embedded it as-is:

[PHP] <?php
# Get the current file name and index of the next file
$currentName = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'], ".html");
$currentIndex = substr($currentName, -2);
$nextIndex = $currentIndex + 1;

# Make sure the index is not higher than 79
if($nextIndex > 79)
$nextIndex = 0;

# Prefix the number with a 0 if it is less than 10
if($nextIndex < 10)
$nextIndex = "0". $nextIndex;

# Print the link
echo "<a href=\"ep{$nextIndex}.html\" target=\"_top\">Next Episode >></a>";
?>[/PHP]

However, each time the link is clicked, it returns to page 01 only. Check it out by selecting any of the first five episodes here:

http://series.airwolf.tv/episodes/

You'll see the resulting "next episode>>"link in the little navigator window on the left.

Wolfman

[Wolfman]

Thank you robin1983. I changed the line, but regretfully the chage results in an extra period being placed in the page name, but it still defaults to #01 each time. Further thoughts?

Wolfman

[Wolfman]

I echoed each variable individually and came up with this:

$currentName = epguidefinder.php
$currentIndex = hp
$nextIndex = 01

Remember that this script is running on a single page that is loaded within each parent HTML page. The benefit of a working script is that it senses the page it is loaded into, so a single instance serves all.

The embedded page is always called epguidefinder.php, so right now the script is detecting the page it's placed on, not the one it's embedded within.
Therefore it's taking the "hp" from "php" and making that the currentIndex variable.
So nextIndex is hp+1, which results in ep01.html every time.

Problem is, I'm not sure how to resolve the code.
First, it must sense the "_top" window, not itself
Second, it must truncate the filename without the .html like it currently did with the .php extension.

[Wolfman]

Solved it!

I used HTTP_REFERER instead of PHP_SELF.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Wolfman