Passing LOV Value on URL

Question

I've tried searching through the forumn and the documetation for APEX, but I could not find how to pass an LOV value on the URL.
I.E: Multi-Select list with values 1;3;5 selected.
You can't put 1;3;5 in the URL's item value spot as the semi-colons will throw off the parsing of the URL.
Obviously an LOV with only 1 selected value is possible as it does not require any semi-colons.
Ideas?

Answer 1

Passing the value on the URL is a must here is why:
The functionality being provided is a basically a search that appears inside of an iframe that is styled to look just like a standard pop up. The search functionality allows for different criteria to be searched upon based upon a number of given fields at the top. At some points it is nicer to provide default search criteria based upon the context of the parent page's item values in session state (which is usually not editable by the user); one of these being from a value set from a multi-select list.
The page when opened will open with the default criteria already applied with the list of selectable items being shown. Going through the DOM to obtain the item is not an option because
1) The page should not visibly refresh after it opens and loads.
2) Even if visible page refresh were an option: The iframe is calling a page that can be shared between other pages (meaning its searching function is atomic and reusable) and the source value item can and does change. Which in turn means that the element's ID is not referenceble unless it was passed into the page. But then again, refreshing a page and rednering it twice does not look good.
Passing the value on the URL would be most advantageous as it requires only a single page render inside the iframe.