click a link pass a session variable to the next page

I have a page where I am using a PHP while loop to echo the names and addresses of our dealers. For the email link, I want the user to be able to click the link, which would then take him to a form that emails that person.

I know that you can't mix Javascript and PHP, so how do I tell which link the user has clicked on so that I can pass that variable to the form on the next page? Here is my code:

<?php while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 
          if ($row['active'] == 1) {

?>

      <div id="dealer">

          <div id="dealername">
              <h3 style="float:left;"><?php echo $row['company']; ?></h3><br/>
              <p><?php echo $row['address1']; ?><br/>
                 <?php if($row['address2'] || $row['address3']) { 
                        echo $row['address2'] . ' ' . $row['address3'] . '<br/>'; } ?>
                 <?php echo $row['city']; 
                 if ($row['state']) {
                          echo ', ' . $row['state'];
                  }
                  echo '&nbsp;&nbsp;' . $row['zip']; ?>
                  <br />
                  <?php echo $row['country']; ?>

                  <br />
                  <br />
                  Phone: <strong><?php echo $row['phone1']; ?></strong><?php if ($row['phone2']) {
                      echo ' or ' . $row['phone2']; } ?><br/>
                  <?php if($row['fax']) { echo 'Fax: ' . $row['fax'];  } ?><br />
              </p>
          </div>

          <?php if ($row['email']) {
              echo '<div class="dealerEmail">'. // need help here . '</div>';

            } ?>

        <br class="clearall" />
        </div>




<?php }} ?>

The page that this code appears on is pulling data from a database using a GET statement based on a URL similar to "index.php?state=az".

I've tried making the email link use a "?email=..." format but when I go to the dealer-email.php page there are no parameters in the URL, which I don't get. That's why I'm trying to find some other way 开发者_如何转开发to pass some kind of variable to the next page, based on which link the user clicks on.

Hope this is clear. Thanks in advance for your help.

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this should work fine:

<a href="somepage.php?email=<?php echo $row['email']; ?>">contact dealer</a>

and then you retrieve the data in the somepage.php page:

if(isset($_GET['email']))
    $email = $_GET['email'];
else
    //redirect somewherelse

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I know that you can't mix Javascript and PHP

This is not true. Javascript is a Client-Side Scripting language, and PHP is Server-Side scripting. They run at different times, on different machines, and will run just fine.

Mixing Javascript and PHP might be a mental challenge and subject to pitfalls, but it definitely can be done, and often is done.

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You might skip the email form altogether and include a mailto attribute in your link.

<a href="mailto:<?php echo $row['email'];?>">contact dealer</a>

This will open the user's default email client new message window with the address filled in. I understand you may want to use a custom form to prevent someone from spamming all your contacts, but if this is a restricted area for logged in users, or an intranet site, this might work.