Alpha Search

Hi April,

So you want to be able to search for listings that start with a certain letter and belongs to a certain category. Is that right.

What you can do is add this information to a custom WHERE clause in your getRecords call.

For example, if we assume that we want to find all listings that start with the letter "A" (ie, "A" is the first letter in the title field) and belongs to the education category, we can set up a query that looks like this:

list($listingsRecords, $listingsMetaData) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'listings',
'allowSearch' => false,
'where' => "title LIKE 'A%' AND category = 'education'",
));

Of course you'll have to change the category value based on how you're storing you category values in listings.

Hope this helps get you started.

Thanks!

If I am listing out the letters in alpha search directly on the page, is there an easier way so I am not having to create a seperate page with the where clause that I would link that letter to (hope that makes sense)?

Here is a old page of our directories that I am re-designing in cms:

http://www.charlotteparent.com/Directories/daytrips.php

Thanks!

April

Hi April,

Sure, if your query is set up like this:

http://www.charlotteparent.com/Directories/daytrips.php?search_cat=34&alpha=B

You can use those variables to dynamically create your WHERE clause.

For example:


$where = "";

if (@$_REQUEST['search_cat']) {
$where .= " category = '".mysql_escape(@$_REQUEST['search_cat'])."' AND";
}

if (@$_REQUEST['alpha']) {
$where .= " title LIKE '".mysql_escape(@$_REQUEST['alpha'])."%'";
}

$where = rtrim($where, "AND");

list($listingsRecords, $listingsMetaData) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'listings',
'allowSearch' => false,
'where' => $where,
));

Hope this helps

What if my page already has a where clause and includes the category (so I can accurately list out listings based on categoryand type of listing).

Hereis my where clause I am already using on page:

list($dir_listingsRecords, $dir_listingsMetaData) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'dir_listings',
'where' => "pre_listing = '0' AND category LIKE '%\tParty Planning\t%'",
'perPage' => '25',
'orderBy' => 'title',

));

I have attached my page below.



Thanks!

april

Hi,

It looks like that code should work. The only time I can see it running into an issue is when there is no value in $_REQUEST['alpha'].

That can be taken care of like this:

$where = "pre_listing = '0' AND category LIKE '%\tParty Planning\t%'";

if (@$_REQUEST['alpha']) {
$where .= " AND title LIKE '".mysql_escape(@$_REQUEST['alpha'])."%'";
}

list($dir_listingsRecords, $dir_listingsMetaData) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'dir_listings',
'where' => $where,
'perPage' => '25',
'orderBy' => 'title',

));

This query should pull out all records where pre_listing equals 0, "Party Planning" was selected in category, and title begins with $_REQUEST['alpha'].

Let me know if you have any problems with this query.

Thanks