Searchability of list

The plugin doesn’t have multiple-field search capabilities, and while it’s possible to build you own search functionality, it is not particularly simple.

CSV downloads are also not possible from the frontend without developing a custom script.

Hi, Xnau. First, excellent plugin. Second, you are the most patient and polite developer I’ve ever witnessed! Thank you for being so helpful.

In regard to your comment above: I’ve spent a lot of time building the form and the database, and training admins how to use the plugin options, and promising everyone involved in the project that this plugin would do what we needed. It never occurred to me that the plugin would not have multiple-field search capabilities! Not your fault, of course, I should have researched a little deeper before getting so deep into it.

I simply must have the ability to search multiple fields on the front end, just as I do on the back end (on the List Participants page). But trashing everything I’ve done so far and starting over with a new plugin, if I can find one, is a distressing thought. And everything else about this plugin is so fantastic.

I was relieved to read your response to iam2me3 above where you say that it is possible to search multiple fields at once. It means that I am not dead in the water just yet. But then you say it is not particularly simple, so maybe I am, because I don’t know if I can handle it. I’m also on quite a time crunch, so the hair-pulling has already begun.

I know your time is valuable and that you are probably very busy, but is there any way you can give me a brief overview of what is necessary to create this functionality? Ideally, it would mean creating a front end version of the List Participants page (in the admin area of the plugin) on the front end, but anything you can think of to get me closer to that would be GREATLY appreciated.

I would gladly hire you for this, but I know that you are busy and probably couldn’t get to it for a while, and I need it right away, so I’ll have to do it myself, if you are able to point me in the right direction, and if I am able to figure it out. I would pay you even if you could just get me started with maybe a brief explanation or code snippet(s) or general approach. Thanks for any help you can give…

OK, well, it’s not pretty. There are several ways to do this. The easiest is way is to construct a modified search form that has multiple fields for “value” “search_field” and “operator” which you can do by adding brackets to the name. If you’re familiar with HTML forms, this will make sense: “value[]’ “search_field[]” “operator[]”

You can do this using a custom template: check out the ‘pdb-list’detailed.php’ template for your starting point. You only need to replace the part that adds the ‘search_field’ ‘operator’ and ‘value’ inputs. ‘search_field’ is usually shown as a dropdown, you can hard-code that by using a hidden field, or use the dropdown in “multi” mode…read the notes in the template for the details on that.

Now, there is a currently a bug that prevents this from working (this is an untested feature) so you’ll have to put in a fix for that, then your multiple-field submission will work.

In the file classes/PDb_List_Query.class.php on line 339, you’ll find:

$this->post_input = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, self::multi_search_input_filter());

change this to:

$this->post_input = $_POST;

that is a quick-and-dirty fix, the real fix will involve sanitizing that array, but the effect will be the same.

That will get you on the right track.

I’ll be publishing a tutorial on this once that bug is fixed, but that won’t be in time for your project.

Thank you! I will get back to you when I have it working, and I will be sure to send you some money through your website. Much appreciated ??

Hi dcutri500, have you managed to create a search functionality that can search multiple fields?
I’m trying to achieve the same thing, so if you have found a solution yet, I would love to know about it.