flashdata not working but userdata works

[eluser]spider pig[/eluser]
I have a searchable list with pagination. I have used it in CodeIgniter 1.6.3 without problems but in version 1.7 it doesn't work.

I use flashdata to store the search text between pages but it's currently is not accepting a value. It tried it using userdata and it works fine.

Anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong.

Thanks

Here's the controller:

Code:

function search_results() {
         $this->main->load_settings();
         $this->load->helper('form');
        
         $pageText = $this->main->header($this->pageID);
         if (!$pageText)
             return;
        $html->al_main_content .= $pageText;
         $categories = $this->product_support_class->product_category_array();

        $searchtext = $this->session->flashdata('searchtext');
        if (isset($_POST['searchtext'])) {
            $data->searchtext = $this->input->post('searchtext');
        } elseif (isset($searchtext)) {
            $data->searchtext = $this->session->flashdata('searchtext');
        } else {
            $data->searchtext = NULL;
        }
         if (isset($_POST['cat'])) {
             $data->cat = $this->input->post('cat');
         } else {
             $data->cat = $this->uri->segment(3, 0);
         }
         $data->cat_list = form_dropdown('cat', $categories, $data->cat, 'class="AdvancedCategory"');
         $html->al_main_content .= $this->load->view('product_support/search_form', $data, TRUE);
        $html->al_main_content .= $this->product_support_class->search_results($data->searchtext, $data->cat, base_url().'product_support/search_results/'.$data->cat);

         $this->load->view('content', $html);        
         $this->load->view('footer');
     }

Here's the model:

Code:

function search_results($searchtext, $cat, $path) {
        $this->load->library('pagination');
        $data->al_table_rows = NULL;
        $html = '<h5 style="margin: 10px 0 5px 0;">Search Results</h5>'.LF;
        if ($searchtext != NULL) {
            $this->session->set_flashdata('searchtext', $searchtext);
            $html .= $this->session->flashdata('searchtext');
        }
        $sql = "select supportID from ".$this->db->dbprefix('product_support')." where supportPublish='Y'";
        if ($cat > 0)
            $sql .= " and supportCategory like '%|".$this->db->escape_str($cat)."|%'";
        if ($searchtext != NULL)
            $sql .= " and (supportProductName like '%".$this->db->escape_str($searchtext)."%' or supportText like '%".$this->db->escape_str($searchtext)."%')";
        $query = $this->db->query($sql);

        $config['base_url'] = $path;
        $config['total_rows'] = $query->num_rows();
        $config['uri_segment'] = 4;
        $config['per_page'] = '20';
        $config['full_tag_open'] = '<div class="pagination">Page - ';
        $config['full_tag_close'] = '</div>';
        $config['cur_tag_open'] = '<span>';
        $config['cur_tag_close'] = '</span>';
        $this->pagination->initialize($config);

        $sql = "select * from ".$this->db->dbprefix('product_support')." where supportPublish='Y'";
        if ($cat > 0)
            $sql .= " and supportCategory like '%|".$this->db->escape_str($cat)."|%'";
        if ($searchtext != NULL)
            $sql .= " and (supportProductName like '%".$this->db->escape_str($searchtext)."%' or supportText like '%".$this->db->escape_str($searchtext)."%')";
        $sql .= " limit ".$this->uri->segment(4, 0).",20";
        $query = $this->db->query($sql);
        $html .= $this->pagination->create_links();
        if ($query->num_rows() > 0) {
            $counter = 0;
            foreach ($query->result() as $row) {
                $data->al_table_rows .= '<tr'.$this->product_support_class->row_colour($counter).'><td><h5><a >supportID.'/'.htmlentities($row->supportPath).'">'.htmlentities($row->supportProductName).'</a></h5></td><td valign="top" class="textright">12/03/2008</td></tr>'.LF;
                $counter++;
            }
        } else {
            $data->al_table_rows .= '<tr><td colspan="2"><div style="text-align: center; padding: 50px 0;"><h5>No product support documents match the search criteria.</h5></div></td></tr>'.LF;
        }
        $html .= $this->load->view('product_support/results_table', $data, TRUE);
        $html .= $this->pagination->create_links();
        return $html;
    }

Session settings:

Code:

$config['encryption_key'] = "password";

$config['sess_cookie_name']        = 'cisession';
$config['sess_expiration']        = 7200;
$config['sess_encrypt_cookie']    = TRUE;
$config['sess_use_database']    = FALSE;
$config['sess_table_name']        = 'ci_sessions';
$config['sess_match_ip']        = FALSE;
$config['sess_match_useragent']    = TRUE;
$config['sess_time_to_update']     = 300;