section editor question

Hi Kitaguru

Second things first.

You can sort by anything that you want to, but if you change type of sort you'll need to remove the dragSortOrder field from the section and from the general and sorting tabs in the section editor or you'll get a conflict error.

In answer to your first question:

Most of the plugins have their documentation in the plugin file or in a readme file that accompanies it.

The advanced tab should be self explanatory. The required plugins field (I believe) is a reminder that let's you know if you need one to allow the section to function as planned.

Regarding searching, sorting etc, here's an excerpt from my CMSB Cookbook http://www.thecmsbcookbook.com
that talks about setting up basic searches.

SETTING UP BASIC SEARCHES
Here’s some basic code that you can use to set up a simple search box on the list page of a multi-record editor to return only those records that match your search criteria.

<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>">
<input type="text" name="your_field_name_your-criteria" value="">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">
</form>

Notice the “name” entry on the sample form above. It starts with the field in which you want to preform the search (your_field_name) and is followed by a modifier that determines what type of search is to be performed (_your-criteria).

CMSB is set up to allow you to search by many criteria by changing ( _your-criteria) in the “name” entry to one of these:

_match - an exact match
_keyword - will look for specific words
_prefix - starts with keyword (or letter)
_query - allows google-style query searches such as: +dog -cat "multi word phrase". Only records matching EVERY word or quoted phrase are returned. Words or phrases that start with - mean "must not match". The + is optional and not required.
_min - A minimum value for numeric searches
_max - A maximum value for numeric searches
_year year number for date searches
_month - month number for date searches
_day - Day of month for date searches

So, let’s say you’ve set up a field called “fruit” that can contain one or more keywords, like Apple, Banana, Pear, Orange.

Here’s the basic code that you would use to search for one of those.

<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>">
<input type="text" name="fruit_keyword" value="">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">
</form>

If the visitor entered Apple, Banana, Pear, or Orange, only those records that contained the keyword would be listed.

You could also change the form to include a drop down menu of choices instead of the text box like this:

<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>">

<select name="last_name_keyword">
<option value="">Please Choose a Fruit</option>
<option value="Apple">Apple</option>
<option value="Banana">Banana</option>
<option value="Pear">Pear</option>
<option value="Orange">Orange</option>
</select>

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Search">
</form>

There are also many posts on the forum like:

http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=64259#64259

Which I found by doing a search for "tutorial".

Hope that points you in the right direction.

Best,

Jerry Kornbluth