Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition

Searching and Browsing

This section describes the searching and browsing module in the winestore. As the scripts are complex, we've divided the discussions into three parts: a short description of the search criteria input form; a discussion of the SQL query used to retrieve matching wines; and, an longer overview of the code that produces the browsable results.

Search Criteria Form

Example 20-1 lists the search input criteria search/searchform.php script. The script is a straightforward use of the winestoreFormTemplate class discussed in Chapter 16. It allows users to choose a region and a wine type to browse, and uses the winestoreFormTemplate::selectWidget( ) method to present these as drop-down lists.

Example 20-1. Thesearch/searchform.php script that displays a search criteria entry form

<?php // This is the script that allows the to search and browse wines, and // to select wines to add to their shopping cart require_once "../includes/template.inc"; require_once "../includes/winestore.inc"; set_error_handler("customHandler"); session_start( ); // Takes <form> heading, instructions, action, formVars name, and // formErrors name as parameters $template = new winestoreFormTemplate("Search", "Choose regions and wine types to browse.", S_SEARCH, "searchFormVars", NULL, "GET"); $connection = DB::connect($dsn, true); if (DB::isError($connection)) trigger_error($connection->getMessage( ), E_USER_ERROR); // Create the drop-down search widgets for the page // Load the regions from the ...