"form" help.

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 12:02 AM

i never was great with forms mainly due to the fact that i have never before had anything but a free server (no Db, no php, no cgi) thats changed and i'd like to use some of these features in a form i'm having issue putting together the logic for it. a little help from you fine peeps would be great.

this form will allow user to search different search engines from one place.

so a seach box

Code:

search for:
<input name="searchbox" type="text">

then a list of seach engines that the user can select via radio button..

Code:

<p> google:
<input type="radio" name="google" value="google's query URL=">
</p>
<p>hotbot:
<input type="radio" name="hotbot" value="Hotbot's query URL=">

the a simple submit button..

i want the form to take the text from the "searchbox" and add it to the end of the value of the checked radio button then send the combined url to my targeted frame..

seems so simple in theory..
any help here would be great, thanks in advance.

you can find my first post about this question http://www.ynot.com/index.php?name=P...=610842#610842

**thetestingsite** · 02-01-2007, 12:13 AM

Do you want a PHP solution or a javascript solution? The following is a PHP solution:

Code:

<?php
if ($_POST['act'] == "do_search") { //if the action is do_search
   if ($_POST['q'] == "" || $_POST['se'] == "") { //if query or search engine is blank
        header('Refresh:3; url='.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
        echo 'You must enter a search query and select a search engine to search!';
   }

   else {
       if ($_POST['se'] == "google") {

header('Location: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q='.$_POST["q"].'&btnG=Google+Search');

       }

        elseif ($_POST[''] == "hotbot") {

header('Location: http://hotbot.com/?query='.$_POST["q"].'&ps=&loc=searchbox&tab=web&mode=search&currProv=ask          '); 
        }

         else {
             header('Location: '.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
   }
      
}

else { //if form not submitted
?>

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="do_search">

Search: <input type="text" name="q" value=""><BR>
<input type="radio" name="se" value="google">Google <input type="radio" name="se" value="hotbot"><BR>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

</form>

<?php
}
?>

Added Later: If you want to make the search form on a seperate page, then have it target the specified frame, try the following:

Code:

<form action="filename.php" method="POST" target="framename">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="do_search">

Search: <input type="text" name="q" value=""><BR>
<input type="radio" name="se" value="google">Google <input type="radio" name="se" value="hotbot"><BR>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

</form>

Where filename.php is the filename of the script above, and the framename is your target frame.

Hope this helps.

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 11:19 AM

thank you ~!

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 01:24 PM

ok i uploaded a test of the code you posted, and its loading the script but doing nothing..

heres what i have it set up as..

searchform.htm

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body>
<form action="search.php" method="POST" target="framename">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="do_search">

Search: <input type="text" name="q" value=""><BR>
<input type="radio" name="se" value="google">Google <input type="radio" name="se" value="hotbot">
  Hotbot<BR>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

</form>
</body>
</html>

and search.php

Code:

<?php
if ($_POST['act'] == "do_search") { //if the action is do_search
   if ($_POST['q'] == "" || $_POST['se'] == "") { //if query or search engine is blank
        header('Refresh:3; url='.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
        echo 'You must enter a search query and select a search engine to search!';
   }

   else {
       if ($_POST['se'] == "google") {

header('Location: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q='.$_POST["q"].'&btnG=Google+Search');

       }

        elseif ($_POST[''] == "hotbot") {

header('Location: http://hotbot.com/?query='.$_POST["q"].'&ps=&loc=searchbox&tab=web&mode=search&currProv=ask          '); 
        }

         else {
             header('Location: '.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
   }
      
}

else { //if form not submitted
?>

i dont claim to know anything about Php, so i already guess that my error is very noobler.

you can see what happens here

**BLiZZaRD** · 02-01-2007, 01:29 PM

invalid link

It should be like this

Edit.. it looks good though...

You didn't specify a "framename"

If you aren't using frames then remove that "target=" part.

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 02:04 PM

i will be using frames when i put it together for use, but for now, if it doesn't find the frame it will default back to _blank...

but the search results aren't being displayed after search.php has run. the page remain blank.

**thetestingsite** · 02-01-2007, 05:44 PM

OK...try the following:

search.php

Code:

<?php
if ($_POST['act'] == "do_search") { //if the action is do_search
   if ($_POST['q'] == "" || $_POST['se'] == "") { //if query or search engine is blank
        header('Refresh:3; url='.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
        echo 'You must enter a search query and select a search engine to search!';
   }

   else {

header('Location: '.$_POST["se"].$_POST["q"]);

   }
      
}

else { //if form not submitted
?>

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="do_search">

Search: <input type="text" name="q" value=""><BR>
<input type="radio" name="se" value=" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&q=">Google <input type="radio" name="se" value="http://hotbot.com/?loc=searchbox&tab=web&mode=search&currProv=ask&query=">HotBot<BR>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

</form>

<?php
}
?>

Standalone form:

Code:

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="act" value="do_search">

Search: <input type="text" name="q" value=""><BR>
<input type="radio" name="se" value=" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&q=">Google <input type="radio" name="se" value="http://hotbot.com/?loc=searchbox&tab=web&mode=search&currProv=ask&query=">HotBot<BR>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

</form>

Tested and works.

Hope this helps.

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 06:13 PM

a search for "anything" with google checked, sends me to http://unknownerrors.net/search/%3C?php%20echo%20$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?%3E

hotbot is the same result.

i just noticed the first post was leaving error_log,
[01-Feb-2007 23:15:53] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ELSE in /home/unknowne/public_html/search/search.php on line 34

**unknownerrors** · 02-01-2007, 06:43 PM

another peice of info, i use firefox, i had the page with this form in it named searchform.htm, that was giving the above error.. i renamed it to searchform.php, now when i submit the form it reloads the page and hides the form.

**thetestingsite** · 02-01-2007, 06:45 PM

try changing the file extension from html to php and see if that works. Also, are you calling the form from an html page with the action as search.php? I looked at your website from the link you posted and noticed that you need to change it to php as compared to html.

Hope these help.

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