passing string in "textfield" to another part in code - php

Question

I have one question about passing strings from one Ext.formPanel textfield to another part of the code. The thing is that I have two "textfield" in the formPanel and I want the words I enter there as part of the "url" I have in the code. Probably you may ask, why does this guy want that?? this is because the "url" I'm using has a PHP script that generates features stored in a postgis db table as GeoJSON.
This the code:
[CODE]
// define the data source
var protocol = new OpenLayers.Protocol.HTTP({
url: "http://localhost/postgis_geojson.php?geotable=boreholes_point_wgs84&geomfield=geom&parameters=" + "column" + ilike '%"string"%',
format: new OpenLayers.Format.GeoJSON({
ignoreExtraDims: true,
'internalProjection': new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:900913"),
'externalProjection': new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326")
})
});
formPanel = new GeoExt.form.FormPanel({
title: "Place Name Search",
height: 150,
region: "north",
protocol: protocol,
items: [{
xtype: "textfield",
id: "column",
emptyText: "Choose table column",
fieldLabel: "Choose table column",
width: 200,
allowBlank: false
}, {
xtype: "textfield",
id: "string",
emptyText: "Search inside table",
fieldLabel: "Enter a word to search",
width: 200,
allowBlank: false
}],
listeners: {
actioncomplete: function(form, action) {
features = action.response.features;
store.loadData(features);
vm=map.getLayersByName("Results");
if(vm.length===0){
vecLayer = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Results");
map.addLayer(vecLayer);
store.bind(vecLayer);
select.bind(vecLayer);
}
}
},
buttons: [{text: 'search',
handler: function(){
formPanel.search();
}
}],
keys: [{ key: [Ext.EventObject.ENTER],
handler: function() {
formPanel.search();
}
}]
});
[/CODE]
These are the cases I already tested:
url: http://localhost/postgis_geojson.php?geotable=boreholes_point_wgs84&geomfield=geom: this generates the whole table "boreholes_point_wgs84" as GeoJSON.
url: http://localhost/postgis_geojson.php?geotable=boreholes_point_wgs84&geomfield=geom&parameters=station ilike '%llena%': this generates only one feature, the feature that has "llena" in the "station" column. So, in this way I can find the feature through the search form.
What I was thinking is if I can pass these two strings I enter in "textfield" and modify the "url" in the way that it can catch these two words and form, for example, the second case I put above. I was playing with this:
url: http://localhost/postgis_geojson.php?geotable=boreholes_point_wgs84&geomfield=geom&parameters=" + "column" + ilike '%"string"%', so using the "id" I specified below each xtype, but it doesn't work.
I appreciate any support on this, thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Gery

Answer 1

The correct way to this is a simple form submission. The text input values will be sent to the server in a form post. Server side should parse the submitted values and do what's necessary. This isn't any different from the use of plain HTML and any server side frameworks.
Alternatively you can force your form to submit using HTTP GET method instead of POST and then your input values will be part of your URL. In ExtJS you use 'method' config. See API docs: http://docs.sencha.com/ext-js/4-1/#!/api/Ext.form.Basic-cfg-method
EDIT: if you are not at all interested in actually 'submitting' the form you can get your field values like this: form.findField('myField').value

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure that this solution will help to understand how to solve this problem, I solved myself.