change php empty check to empty string check
bug fix: do not insert gpa param
 pagination fixes
  - render a Home link when we have page > 1 with no records
  - change default DB param to "before" 1 to signal no records
  - we only worry about the gpage variable in constructor
remove redundant check from paging render
bug fix: $ was missing in variable
 + made Util.getRandomString as static
 + added icontains method to Util class
 + remove unused variable from Web
 + Added @todo comment to mysql session handler