how to create search form with into codeigniter uri format? - php

Question

dear all, i'm a noob in codeigniter,
i would like to ask for advise, on how to create a search form that would result to url as:
http://domain/class/index/searchvar1/searcvar1val/searchvar2/searchvar2val
the form would be like
<form action="http://domain/class/index">
<input name="searchvar1" value="searchvar1val">
<input name="searchvar2" value="searchvar2val">
<input type="submit">
</form>
what is the best practice for this?
i've googled around including stackoverflow posts, still can't find any solution.
thanks :)
~thisismyfirstposthere
update ::
i would like to emphasize that my objective is to process search variables from the uri string (above), not from post vars; so i think setting the form search to POST is not an option? :)
update (2)
i don't think this can be done out of the box in codeigniter, i'm thinking of client-processing the form vars/vals into the form action in URI format using jQuery.
will post an update here later when done.

Answer 1

taking a look at the user_guide :
$this->uri->assoc_to_uri()
Takes an associative array as input
and generates a URI string from it.
The array keys will be included in the
string. Example:
$array = array('product' => 'shoes', 'size' => 'large', 'color' => 'red');
$str = $this->uri->assoc_to_uri($array);
// Produces: product/shoes/size/large/color/red
and i think if your form is this:
<form action="http://domain/class/index/search">
<input name="product" value="shoes">
<input name="size" value="large">
<input name="color" value="red">
<input type="submit">
</form>
then somewhere in the search controller do this $this->uri->assoc_to_uri($data); IMHO will produce product/shoes/size/large/color/red

Answer 2

hey guys, thanks for replying and discussing, I think imma go with flow:
View --> form --> jquery, on form submit: replace action attribute with form params --> controller with uri string --> rest of the process
the jquery part would be something like this
$("#searchFormID").submit(function(){
// $(this).serialize() outputs param1=value1&param2=value2 string
// var.replace(regex, string) outputs param1/value1/param2/value2 string
// newact would be http://localhost/class/index/param1/value1/param2/value2
var newact = $(this).attr("action") + "/" + $(this).serialize().replace(/&|=/g,"/");
$(this).attr("action", newact); // or $(this).attr("target", newact);
return true;
});
notes:
add an id attribute to the form -> for the form selector in jquery
use post method in the form (this is default in codeigniter) -> so action url will not be populated with the GET string

Answer 3

You may want to enable query strings and use $_GET. IMO, this is a perfect example what the query string is intended for.
Make sure to change your form to <form method="get" action="http://domain/class/index">
You will then have a query string in your URL like ?searchvar1=value1&searchvar2=value2
You can access parts of the string like this: $this->input->get('searchvar1')
With the method you are currently using, if a user searches for any characters that are not allowed in your $config['permitted_uri_chars'], you will have to do a lot of encoding and decoding yourself to make sure the string is safe/readable in your URL. The CI Input class takes care of this for you, so it is my recommendation.
Another disadvantage to URI segment based search params is that there is no proper way to express an array like ?values[]=one&values[]=two&values[]=three. There are hacks to work around this, but they are all exactly that: hacks. you will eventually run into trouble.
Using $_POST is very tedious and forces the use of form submits for paginated results and links, and also ensures that you cannot link to the search results or use the back button properly.
If you must use this method, simply have the form post to your controller, read the input, and then redirect() to the url that you construct from it. littlechad has the right idea for this method in his answer
// This URL:
http://domain/class/index/searchvar1/searcvar1val/searchvar2/searchvar2val
// With this:
$search = $this->uri->uri_to_assoc();
// Produces this:
array(
'searchvar1' => 'searchvarval1',
'searchvar2' => 'searchvarval2',
);
// And you can use it like this:
$arg1 = $search['searchvar1'];
$arg2 = $search['searchvar2'];
To get TO this url, you can do something like this with your form post (in the controller after post):
$var1 = $this->input->post('searchvar1');
$var2 = $this->input->post('searchvar2');
redirect('searchvar1/'.urlencode($var1).'/searchvar2/'.urlencode($var2));
I'm sure you can see how much more work this is than just using the tried-and-true query string...