Filtering results and pagination - django-templates

Question

I have a template that shows a filter form and below it a list of the result records. I bind the form to the request so that the filter form sets itself to the options the user submitted when the results are returned.
I also use pagination. Using the code in the pagination documentation means that when the user clicks for the next page, the form data is lost.
What is the best way of dealing with pagination and filtering in this way?
Passing the querystring to the paginiation links.
Change the pagination links to form buttons and therefore submit the filter form at the same time, but this assumes that the user hasn't messed about with the filter options.
As above but with the original data as hidden fields.
ALJ

Answer 1

If you don't mind tweaking your URLs a bit you can embed the filter options directly into the URL. That actually has the very nice side benefit of making search options bookmarkable. Thus when a user clicks the next/prev buttons on the pagination then all the information will be carried forward from the URL.
You may have to split your URLs for that page up a tad though. If you've used some keyword args to the view function though, you can put all the logic for that view in one function.
Quick example
in your urls.py
urlpatterns = patterns('',
(r'^some_url/to/form/$', 'myapp.myview'),
(r'^some_url/to/form/(?P<filter>[^/]+)/$', 'myapp.myview'),
)
then in your view.py
def myview(request, filter=None):
if request.method == 'POST':
# if the form is valid then redirect the user to the URL
# with the filter args embedded
elif filter is None:
form = MyForm() # init it with the blank defaults
elif filter is not None:
# Convert your filter args to a dict
data = {'my_form_field' : filter}
form = MyForm(data)
else:
# Sanity checking just in case I missed a case. Raise an exception.
# the rest of the display logic for the initialized form
There are certainly cases where using a solution like this does not apply, but without knowing more about your specific case, I can't say.
Hope this helps!