Question

I was wondering how to do the following best with PHP/MySQL and jQuery:

There is a basic search mask where you enter a city and a from-to-date. You process to the search-result page, where you then can narrow your search results with certain parameters (checkboxes, jQuery slider, text-input, …). The search-results should then update on the fly without the whole page being reloaded…

I manage to use jQuery ajax and load to send information to another php file, perform e.g. a SELECT and return the results to the search detail page, but I don’t know how to combine different changes that narrow the search results.

Furthermore, there are already results on the detail page, so I do not need to add more results but “delete” the results that do not fit anymore…

The thing is that each parameter to narrow the search is connected to another table in the database. Do I have to and how do I add joins to the original query…? Or am I thinking in the wrong direction?

Answer 1

Yes, this is absolutely the right direction. Use

$(document).ready(function() {  

    $('#ID_OF_YOUR_ELEMENT_TO_LOAD_INTO').load("load.php?parameter1=<?php echo $parameter1; ?>&parameter2=<?php echo $parameter2; ?>");

});

to get the results when the user gets on the page for the first time, to get the results according to your city and your dates.

Check in the load.php which parameters are set and use the ones that are set to build your query. Then, when the form (or forms, depending) are updated, you have to use .load again, like this:

$('#ID_OF_YOUR_FORM_BEING_UPDATED').change(function() {

    $('#ID_OF_YOUR_ELEMENT_TO_LOAD_INTO').load("load.php?parameter1=<?php echo $parameter1; ?>&parameter2=<?php echo $parameter2; ?>&parameter3=<?php echo $parameter3; ?>");

});