Displaying record sets (browse?)

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out pear, but what I'm really missing is a browse class: How do you guys do someting this essential? I find loops fetching a bunch of records everywhere, but I want a single, neat and full feature browse class... (I find it very hard to get the overview for pear: too much details, and nowhere an overview to be found) Attached is a picture of what I have in mind. I have drawn the needed screen elements, but there should be a template involved, which translates the record set (and all its options and navigation elements) to a nice picture. Basically, the class performs a fetch loop, and saves the fetched data in an array to be processed by a template. But then, it also needs to process and set url parameters. I think I will need these url parameters: table= sets the primary table id= marks the id of the selected record page= pager: current page pagesize= pager: number of records per page filter= [field, operator, value] user set filter i.e.: article.name>='b', multiple filters should be supported sort= [field [,field]] user sort (by clicking on a header) of course, if a record is selected (id=x), then the page should be calculated, based on the records position in the current sort. if id=x is absent, then the page= parameter sets the page. Optionally, I want (in a later stadium) that users may select their own columns to display, so, at first, the browse (and the templates used) do not know which fields to display (i.e.: specific names can not be mentioned in the template: an array with the fields should be processed by the template). Other goals are: 1) One script/class to fetch all the records per page (A simple parameter (like browse.php?table=Article) should be enough. The class should auto load the DB/DB_Dataobject classes and run) The script/class should call itself (either by url or by post) , and figure out what's changed, and retrieve and display the result set again. 2) Auto fetch of related (parent) records ( Article.CategoryID < < ---- > Category.ID ) 3) Ability to set the fields to be displayed ( what order from left to right, which width ) In a later stage, users may want to select their own fields to display 4) Ability to translate header fields to a meaningful text (Article.ThisArticleName could be set to 'Name' or 'Article'), optional depending on a language. 5) Ability to tag records (and thus, process tagged records for deletion) 6) Ability to sort ( asc / desc ) by clicking a header field. However, by resorting the record set, the selected record ('selected row') can be on a total different page, and that page should be loaded again. 7) Ability to prevent certain fields to be displayed, depening on a user authentication level/user type. This should IMHO be set in the derived DB_DataObject class: If userlevel > 5, he can see additional fields, else, he can't. 8) Ability to filter records not to be displayed, based on a user authentication level/user type I.E. if userlevel < 3, it can only see suitable records for that level 9) Ability to filter records if the list displayed represents child records of a previously selected parent record. So, Say I already selected the category 'Ideas category', I want to display only articles of that category 10) Of course, output can be displayed using a template or, if no template is available, directly. But, I certainly do not want to create a template for every table 11) Find could find the next record, or apply a filter to show only the records that match the find field. Any ideas? Anything I'm missing at this point? TIA Ronald Compad