[jordan0]

The problem :: In the beads section of my store, I need to give users a way to easily find the beads they are looking for. I carry a lot of different kinds of beads, so using the plain old X-Cart category set-up will leave the customers swimming through pages and pages of beads they don't care about.

The solution? :: I have decided that the best way to do this is to add a set of 3 pull-down menus to the header bar .tpl: size, color, and material; accompanied by a "go" button. The user can then select, for example, "Small Blue Glass" beads and browse a nice specific set of results. Included in the menus will be selections for "All sizes", "All colors", and "All materials".

** Update: I have figured it out! Thanks to Tuner's search.php contribution, I was able to simply copy and slightly modify a few bits and make it work for me. Hopefully someone else will be in my situation one day, and for them i will post my code below:

search.php:

<? 

# 
# $Id: search.php,v 1.44.2.1 2003/06/02 11:57:44 svowl Exp $ 
# 

require "../smarty.php"; 
require "../config.php"; 
@include "./https.php"; 
require "./auth.php"; 
require "../include/categories.php"; 

$tmp=strstr($QUERY_STRING, "$XCART_SESSION_NAME="); 
if (!empty($tmp)) 
 $QUERY_STRING=ereg_replace("$XCART_SESSION_NAME=([0-9a-zA-Z]*)", "", $QUERY_STRING); 

if(!empty($QUERY_STRING)) { 

# 
# Permorfm SQL search query 
# 
// LOOK HERE 
// new bit to split search string into separate words 
 $con = ""; $substr = ""; 
 $and="AND"; 
 
if(!$substring) { $substring=" "; }
 if(!empty($substring)){ 
   $ss = split(" ",$substring); 
   foreach($ss as $s) 
     // nfc - we add support for other fields to search 
    $con[] = "(".$sql_tbl[products].".product like '%".$s."%'"." OR ". 
         $sql_tbl[products].".descr like '%".$s."%'"." OR ". 
         $sql_tbl[products].".fulldescr like '%".$s."%'"." OR ".
         $sql_tbl[products].".param01 like '%".$s."%'"." OR ".
         $sql_tbl[products].".param02 like '%".$s."%'"." OR ".
         $sql_tbl[products].".param03 like '%".$s."%'"." OR ".
         $sql_tbl[products].".productid like '%".$s."%'".")"; 
    //$substr .= "&substring=".urlencode($substring); 
 } 
  
 if(empty($and))$and = "OR"; 
 $substring_query = (!empty($con)) ? " AND (".join(" ".$and." ",$con).") " :" 1 "; 



#Bead Size Search 
 $conp = ""; 
 $andp = "AND"; 
 if(!empty($search_bead_size)){ 
   $ssp = split(" ",$search_bead_size); 
   foreach($ssp as $sp) 
     $conp[] = "(".$sql_tbl[products].".param01 like '%".$sp."%'"." OR ". 
         $sql_tbl[products].".param01 like '%".$sp."%'".")"; 
   
 }
 
 if(empty($andp))$andp = "OR"; 
 $param01_query = (!empty($conp)) ? " AND (".join(" ".$andp." ",$conp).") " :"";
 
 
 #Bead Color Search 
 $conq = ""; 
 $andq = "AND"; 
 if(!empty($search_bead_color)){ 
   $ssq = split(" ",$search_bead_color); 
   foreach($ssq as $sq) 
     $conq[] = "(".$sql_tbl[products].".param02 like '%".$sq."%'"." OR ". 
         $sql_tbl[products].".param02 like '%".$sq."%'".")"; 
   
 }
 
  if(empty($andq))$andq = "OR"; 
 $param02_query = (!empty($conq)) ? " AND (".join(" ".$andq." ",$conq).") " :"";
 
 
  #Bead Material Search 
 $conr = ""; 
 $andr = "AND"; 
 if(!empty($search_bead_material)){ 
   $ssr = split(" ",$search_bead_material); 
   foreach($ssr as $sr) 
     $conr[] = "(".$sql_tbl[products].".param03 like '%".$sr."%'"." OR ". 
         $sql_tbl[products].".param03 like '%".$sr."%'".")"; 
   
 }
 
  if(empty($andr))$andr = "OR"; 
 $param03_query = (!empty($conr)) ? " AND (".join(" ".$andr." ",$conr).") " :"";
 


// end of new bit 

 $price_condition = $price_search_1?" AND $sql_tbl[pricing].price>='$price_search_1'":""; 
 $price_condition .= $price_search_2?" AND $sql_tbl[pricing].price<='$price_search_2'":""; 

 $price_substring = $price_search_1?"&price_search_1=".urlencode($price_search_1):""; 
 $price_substring .= $price_search_2?"&price_search_2=".urlencode($price_search_2):""; 

 if ($price_condition) 
  $sort_by_price = "price"; 
  
 if ($in_category) { 
  $search_category = addslashes(array_pop(func_query_first("select category from $sql_tbl[categories] where categoryid='$in_category'"))); 
  $search_categories = func_query("select categoryid from $sql_tbl[categories] where $sql_tbl[categories].category like '$search_category%'"); 
  if(is_array($search_categories)) { 
   $category_condition=" in ( "; 
   foreach($search_categories as $k=>$v) 
    $category_condition .= "'$v[categoryid]', "; 
   $category_condition = ereg_replace(", $", ")", $category_condition); 
   $category_condition=" ($sql_tbl[products].categoryid $category_condition or $sql_tbl[products].categoryid1 $category_condition or $sql_tbl[products].categoryid2 $category_condition or $sql_tbl[products].categoryid3 $category_condition) "; 
  } 
 } 
 else 
  $category_condition = "1"; 
  
 $membership_condition = " AND ($sql_tbl[categories].membership='". $user_account['membership']."' OR $sql_tbl[categories].membership='') "; 

 if ($store_language != $config["default_customer_language"] && $substring) { 
    // LOOK HERE 
 // nfc - always using default language so this case will never happen 
 } 
 else { 
// LOOK HERE 
// nfc - removed $substring_query =..... 
  $search_query_count = "select count(*) from $sql_tbl[products], $sql_tbl[pricing], $sql_tbl[categories] where $sql_tbl[pricing].productid=$sql_tbl[products].productid and $sql_tbl[pricing].quantity=1 and $sql_tbl[products].categoryid=$sql_tbl[categories].categoryid $membership_condition and ($sql_tbl[pricing].membership='". $user_account['membership']."' or $sql_tbl[pricing].membership='') AND $category_condition and $sql_tbl[products].forsale='Y' and $sql_tbl[categories].avail='Y' $price_condition $param01_query $param02_query $param03_query $substring_query group by $sql_tbl[products].productid"; 
 } 
  
 $search_query = "$category_condition and $sql_tbl[categories].avail='Y' and $sql_tbl[products].forsale='Y' $price_condition $param01_query $param02_query $param03_query $substring_query "; 

  
 $total_products_in_search = count(func_query($search_query_count)); 

# 
# Navigation code 
# 
 $objects_per_page = $config["Appearance"]["products_per_page"]; 

 $total_nav_pages = ceil($total_products_in_search/$objects_per_page)+1; 
 require "../include/navigation.php"; 

 $smarty->assign("products",func_search_products($search_query, $user_account['membership'],$first_page,$total_products_in_search, 0, $sort_by_price)); 

 $smarty->assign("navigation_script","search.php?substring=".urlencode($substring)."&in_category=$in_category"."&search_param01=".urlencode($search_param01)."&search_param02=".urlencode($search_param02)."&search_param03=".urlencode($search_param03).$price_substring); 

 $HTTP_GET_VARS["substring"] = stripslashes($HTTP_GET_VARS["substring"]); 

 $smarty->assign("main","search"); 

} 
else { 
 $smarty->assign("main","advanced_search"); 
} 

$smarty->display("customer/home.tpl"); 
?> 

I then added the following to my advanced_search.tpl and the other templates where I wanted the user to be able to search the beads category:

<table>
<form action="search.php" name="productsearchbeads_form">
<tr><td>Beads</td>
<td>
<select name="search_bead_color">
<option value="">All Colors</option>
<option value="blu">Blue</option>
<option value="red">Red</option>
<option value="grn">Green</option>
</select>
<select name="search_bead_size">
<option value="">All Sizes</option>
<option value="s">Small</option>
<option value="m">Medium</option>
<option value="l">Large</option>
</select>
<select name="search_bead_material">
<option value="">All Materials</option>
<option value="wood">Wood</option>
<option value="plastic">Plastic</option>
<option value="glass">Glass</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><th>{include file="buttons/search.tpl"}</th></tr>
</form>
</table>

Now i know that .tpl code is not a particularly smart way of going about things, but I don't know enough about smarty to get it to automatically list the param01, 02, and 03 values. I'm guessing that would be done with a {section} command, like the category menu uses in advanced_search.tpl... Anyone?

- Jordan