MySQL/PHP: connecting two individual search forms - php

Question

My situation:
I have two different forms. One common search form where users can search for products by their name/description, and another form that lets users search for products by their location (postcode and city).
This is the html for my search form:
<form name="searchform" method="post" action="index.php?go" class="searchform">
<input type="text" name="search" value="" placeholder="Suchen..." class="field_search" id="tags">
</form>
and this is the html for my location-search form:
<form class="location" method="post" action="index.php?go_location">
<input type="image" src="img/location/location.png" width="30" height="30" id="location_image" title="Ortung aktivieren"/>
<input type="text" size="18" placeholder="PLZ, Ort" name="location" id="location" title="Standort angeben"/>
<input type="image" name="" value="" src="img/location/go.png" width="30" height="30" id="location_submit"/>
</form>
and the corresponding php:
if(isset($_POST['search'])){
if(isset($_GET['go'])){
if(preg_match("/[A-Z | a-z]+/", $_POST['search'])){
$input=$_POST['search'];
$currently_searching = true;
//connect to db
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE Name LIKE '%".$input."%' OR Description LIKE '%".$input."%'";
//echo results
}}}}
elseif(isset($_POST['location'])){
if(isset($_GET['go_location'])){
$input_location=$_POST['location'];
$currently_locationing = true;
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE Postcode LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR City LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined2 LIKE '%".$input_location."%'";
//echo results
}}}
Now, individually, they work fine.
What I would like to achieve is connecting these two forms in a way that lets users who are already searching for a certain string (via the common search form) use the location - search form to narrow the results down to those corresponding with the given postcode...
I hope this is clear. I thought something like: If a user uses the common search form, the
$currently_searching
variable becomes "true", so if this variable is true and the user is using the location - search form, then connect them... so I tried adding something like this to the php-statement:
elseif(isset($_POST['location']) && $currently_searching == true){
if(isset($_GET['go_location']) && $currently_searching == true){
if($currently_searching == true){
$input_location=$_POST['location'];
$currently_locationing = true;
//connect to db
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE (Name LIKE '%".$input."%' OR Description LIKE '%".$input."%') AND (Postcode LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR City LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined2 LIKE '%".$input_location."%')";
//echo results
}}}}
It doesn't work though. I'd appreciate some help guys! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is a little trick. Add the id locationForm to your location form and searchForm to your search form, so it looks like this:
<form id="locationForm" class="location" method="post" action="index.php?go">
<input type="image" src="img/location/location.png" width="30" height="30" id="location_image" title="Ortung aktivieren"/>
<input type="text" size="18" placeholder="PLZ, Ort" name="location" id="location" title="Standort angeben"/>
<input type="image" name="" value="" src="img/location/go.png" width="30" height="30" id="location_submit"/>
</form>
<form id="searchForm" name="searchform" method="post" action="index.php?go" class="searchform">
<input type="text" name="search" value="" placeholder="Suchen..." class="field_search" id="tags">
</form>
Then add this javascript:
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).on('submit', '#locationForm, #searchForm',function(e){
var locationInput = $('#locationForm input[name="location"]').clone();
locationInput.attr('type','hidden');
var searchInput = $('#searchForm input[name="search"]').clone();
searchInput.attr('type','hidden');
$('#locationForm').prepend(searchInput);
$('#searchForm').prepend(locationInput);
});
</script>
The javascript will add the search field to the location form and visa versa before submitting. So whenever you submit one of the forms, you will always have both values.
EDIT
In your corresponding.php you could use something like this if there are two seperate queries needed.
if(isset($_POST['search']))
{
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE Name LIKE '%".$input."%' OR Description LIKE '%".$input."%'";
//Execute query
//Fetch results
}
if(isset($_POST['location']))
{
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE Postcode LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR City LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined LIKE '%".$input_location."%' OR Combined2 LIKE '%".$input_location."%'";
//Execute query
//Fetch results
}
//Combine results of search and location query
//echo results
Or if it's possible to execute one query you can use this:
if(isset($_POST['search']) && isset($_POST['location']))
{
$sql="HERE YOUR QUERY WHERE YOU CAN USE $_POST['search'] AND $_POST['location']";
//Execute query
//Fetch results
}
//Combine results of search and location query
//echo results