Pagination Code Problem

Ok, I am so frustrated! I have been working on an sql based shopping cart for a few days and the only problem I am having is getting pagination to work. I have found some code snippets on the web and gone over them line by line trying to figure this out with no luck. The problem seems to be this: The pagination needs to occur on a page called browse.php. There are like 60 products in one catagory and I'd like to display 12 per page. Sounds simple but here is where it gets messy. I am not starting that page with a fresh query that pulls all of the products from the db and displays them, I think I might be able to get that to work maybe. My issue is I am passing a variable on from the previous page called $dept which is a department key. This site sells clothes so you may click on a baby clothes link and go to browse.php?baby_clothes. How do I get baby_clothes into the pagination code below? I have a query up top that pulls sku, price and thumb from the db but when I run this code....the limit works, i do only get 4 per page, but it is the same item 4 times! Click here to see example of page:

http://www.morphosnaturals.com/catalog.php

Click on a link to see it mess up!

Any help getting this to work would be much appreciated. My code is below:

<?php

if (!$PHPSESSID) {
header("Location: main.php");
exit;
}
session_start();

$connection = mysql_connect("127.0.0.1", "login", "passturd")
or die ("Couldn't connect to server.");

$db = mysql_select_db("dbname", $connection)
or die ("Couldn't select database.");

if ($dept) {
$sql = "select sku, price, thumb from products
where dept='$dept' and stock > 0 order by sku";
}

$sql_result = mysql_query($sql,$connection)
or die ("Couldn't get list!");
?>

<?php
include("toolbar.html");
?>

<?php

if (!$PHPSESSID) {
header("Location: main.php");
exit;
}
session_start();

$connection = mysql_connect("127.0.0.1", "login", "passturd")
or die ("Couldn't connect to server.");

$db = mysql_select_db("dbname", $connection)
or die ("Couldn't select database.");

if ($dept) {
$sql = "select sku, price, thumb from products
where dept='$dept' and stock > 0 order by sku";
}

$sql_result = mysql_query($sql,$connection)
or die ("Couldn't get list!");
?>

<?php
include("toolbar.html");
?>

<?php
$limit = 4;
$query_count = "SELECT count(*) FROM products";
$result_count = mysql_query($query_count);
$totalrows = mysql_num_rows($result_count);

if(empty($page)){
$page = 1;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result)) {
$sku = $row["sku"];
$price = sprintf("%0.2f",$row["price"]);
$thumb = $row["thumb"];

$limitvalue = $page * $limit - ($limit);
$query = "SELECT * FROM products LIMIT $limitvalue, $limit";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Error: " . mysql_error());

if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0){
echo("Nothing to Display!");
}

$bgcolor = "#E0E0E0"; // light gray

echo("<table>");
}

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
if ($bgcolor == "#E0E0E0"){
$bgcolor = "#FFFFFF";
}else{
$bgcolor = "#E0E0E0";
}

echo("<tr bgcolor=".$bgcolor."><td>");
echo "<a href="flypage.php?sku=$sku"><img src="$thumb"></a>";
echo("</td><td>");
echo "$price";
echo("</td></tr>");
}

echo("</table>");

}

?>

no offence, but if you can't get a simple thing like pagination to work, maybe you are not ready for a shopping chart application?


just my 2 euro-cents...

Thanks for the help My shopping cart works fine... and I can get simple pagination to work just fine. I am just having trouble integrating the variable I passed from the prevoius query.

If your so "ready" zombie, why don't you act productively and point out my error(s)? I am not a newbie, I have a degree in CS BUT I have only 6 months experience with PHP. I used to write C so the syntax is familiar but of course never did C with mySQL.

sorry, i can't find the error.


btw, i never said i am "ready"...

That's ok, I fixed it through pure ingenuity and a $9.00 book. My new query was cancelling out the data I needed from an old query, so I renamed one, works now. Thanks anyways.