PHP navigation with filters - php

Question

I am working out a faceted navigation (I think that's the right expression...)
So I have a lot of categories and manufacturers on which a user can filter.
I came to the point where I have to get the results from the filters from my database. What would the fastest way to create these queries? I have 3 get values that I can filter on (manufacturer/company/category) so that would mean i would write a query for when manufacturer & company is an active filter and for category and company etc... I see how much work this is and I wonder if there is a short way to do this?

Answer 1

probably want something like below (if I understand your question correctly:
SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE manufacturer='A' AND company='B' AND category='C'
If you're using PHP, you could use it to put the current value in for A, B, and C - but remember to sanitize these values
Edit
For example, with PHP...
<?php
$manufacturer = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['manufacturer']);
$company = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['company']);
$category = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['category']);
$query = "SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE manufacturer='".$manufacturer."' AND company='".$company."' AND category='".$category."'";
// then simply run the query....
?>
Edit 2
You can change AND to OR when needed be
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM tablename";
$mixed_query = "";
if(isset($_GET['manufacturer']) && !empty($_GET['manufacturer'])){
$mixed_query .= ($mixed_query !== "") ? " AND " : " WHERE ";
$mixed_query .= "manufacturer='".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['manufacturer'])."'";
}
if(isset($_GET['company']) && !empty($_GET['company'])){
$mixed_query .= ($mixed_query !== "") ? " AND " : " WHERE ";
$mixed_query .= "company='".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['company'])."'";
}
if(isset($_GET['category']) && !empty($_GET['category'])){
$mixed_query .= ($mixed_query !== "") ? " AND " : " WHERE ";
$mixed_query .= "category='".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['category'])."'";
}
// then add to query
$query .= $mixed_query;
// then simply run the query....
?>

Answer 2

The simplest solution would probably be one where you build the query dynamically:
// GET SANITIZED $manufacturer $company $category
// Initialize the array
$facets = array();
if (isset($manufacturer))
{
$facets[] = "manufacturer = '$manufacturer'";
}
if (isset($company))
{
$facets[] = "company = '$company'";
}
if (isset($category))
{
$facets[] = "category = '$category'";
}
$query = "SELECT * FROM table";
if (count($facets) > 0)
{
$query .= " WHERE" . implode(" AND ", $facets);
}
Your query would only filter on those facets that are set.
To make it slightly more general:
// GET SANITIZED $manufacturer $company $category
// Initialize the array
$facets["manufacturer"] = $manufacturer;
$facets["company"] = $company;
$facets["category"] = $category;
// ADD MORE AS NECESSARY
foreach($facets as $key=>$value)
{
if ($value != '')
{
$where[] = "$key = '$value'";
}
}
$query = "SELECT * FROM table";
if (count($where) > 0)
{
$query .= " WHERE" . implode(" AND ", $where);
}