Display a jQuery Alert

[RFree190]

I have a custom page to run a search. If the search fails, I would like an Alert box to popup informing the user.
On my custom search page, I have it set a $_SESSION variable with the appropriate error message.
I am trying to write some code on the tbl_main_page.php page to display my message.

I've tried something like this:

<?php
//CHECK FOR ERROR AND DISPLAY IT
if(isset($_SESSION['badsearch'])) {
	$errormsg = $_SESSION['badsearch'];
	echo "<script>alert(\"$errormsg\"); </script>";	
	unset($_SESSION['badsearch']);
}
?>

but, nothing shows up.

Anyone have any ideas how I can make this work?

[DrByte]

I'd start by merely echoing out the badsearch message from the session variable, and be sure that it actually contains a message.
And then I'd check the raw HTML ("view source" in the browser, and/or use Firebug etc) to see whether the <script> is output at all.

I hope the following comment doesn't come across as offensive. It isn't meant to be:
I'm not sure what this has to do with jQuery. I don't see anything to do with jQuery in your code or the concept you're describing. Either I'm missing something from your post or perhaps you're using the term "jQuery" to refer also to generic javascript (a simple "alert()" call is just javascript, not specific to jQuery).

[RFree190]

I hope the following comment doesn't come across as offensive. It isn't meant to be:
I'm not sure what this has to do with jQuery. I don't see anything to do with jQuery in your code or the concept you're describing. Either I'm missing something from your post or perhaps you're using the term "jQuery" to refer also to generic javascript (a simple "alert()" call is just javascript, not specific to jQuery).

Thanks for the help.
Yes, I mistakenly used "jQuery" to refer to generic JavaScript.

[RFree190]

Are $_SESSION variables allowed on custom pages?
I have set session_start() at the top of my custom page.

To test, I set $_SESSION['badsearch'] = "Testing"; on my custom page, which is /shop/product.php.
In the common tpl_header.php, I attempt to echo $_SESSION['badsearch'], but nothing shows up.