Passing PHP Variables to AJAX Loaded Pages

Question

I have a blog that shows 9 blogs posts per page, with each additional page of blog posts automatically added using the Infinite Ajax Scroll plugin.

Every time a blog post is successfully queried the $postCount variable increases its count by 1.

[...]
<body>

    <div class="posts">
        <?php
        $postCount = 0;
        if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); $postCount++;
            if ( $postCount % 9 == 0 ) :
                // show featured blog posts
            else :
                // show standard blog posts
            endif;
        endif;
        ?>
    </div> <!-- /posts -->

    <script>
        var ias = jQuery.ias({
            container:       '.posts',
            item:            'article',
            pagination:      '.pagination',
            next:            '.next',
            delay:           0,
            negativeMargin:  1000
        });
    </script>

</body>

I'd like for the $postCount variable to remember its count on the AJAX loaded pages as well. So, instead of resetting to 0 the next page of blog posts would start at 10.

I understand why it's not working (variables are only local) and that I'll need to use something like sessions or get, but I don't know how to implement that.

I'm guessing I need to start a session on my index.php page pass that along to my IAS plugin call...

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Follow up 1:

I've had some luck getting PHP sessions to work by starting the session in my functions.php file

function init_session() {
    session_start();
}
add_action( 'init', 'init_session', 1 );

...and adding the sessions to my file like so:

[...]
<body> 

   <div class="posts">
        <?php

        $postCount = 0;

        if ( isset ( $_SESSION[ 'postCount' ] ) ) :
            $postCount = $_SESSION[ 'postCount' ];
        endif;

        [...] // wp_query

        $_SESSION['postCount'] = $postCount;

        ?>
    </div> <!-- /posts -->

</body>

As it stands the $postCounter keeps counting... So what was initially considered post 1 could be post 100 when the page is refreshed.

I'll need to workout the logic to destroy the session if it's the first post...

Any thoughts welcome. Thanks.

possible duplicate of [Wordpress session management](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1441240/wordpress-session-management) — Machavity, Dec 10 '14 at 19:47
Hey @Machavity I'm not sure I understand the duplication here. Would you mind elaborating? Thanks. — Rich, Dec 10 '14 at 19:53
That thread discusses how to turn PHP sessions on in Wordpress. At which point you can use the sessions like you describe. — Machavity, Dec 10 '14 at 20:32
@Machavity Thanks for the follow up. I think this is different though, since my question wasn't strictly how to use `sessions` in WordPress and more how to use them within the scope of an ajax loaded page. — Rich, Dec 10 '14 at 20:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 10 '14 at 22:26

I was able to keep the $postCount variable counting by starting a php session in my functions.php file

function init_session() {
    session_start();
}
add_action( 'init', 'init_session', 1 );

...and setting up my loop like so:

[...]
<body> 

   <div class="posts">
        <?php

        $postCount = 0;

        if ( is_paged() ) :
            $postCount = $_SESSION[ 'postCount' ];
        endif;

        [...] // wp_query

        $_SESSION['postCount'] = $postCount;

        ?>
    </div> <!-- /posts -->

</body>

Using is_paged() is the key to keep the counter at 0 after a refresh.

Passing PHP Variables to AJAX Loaded Pages

1 Answers1