[support] Trying to create a search form which allows users to input criteria and then displays matching nodes

[Earnie Boyd]

Quoting Kelly Tanguay <ocelotspot86 at gmail.com>:

> Hello,
> We are building a website for a car dealership. We have created a content
> type for inventory which allows the administrator of the website to enter in
> individual vehicles as inventory.
>
> Now we would like to add a feature where a client can search through the
> inventory. For example, if a client wants to see all cars that are made by
> Honda, or if a client wanted to search for cars withing a particular price
> range. Ideally we would like to be able to display the search results with
> views, but can hard code the page to display the different nodes if
> necessary.
>

This is where taxonomy is good.  And add  
http://drupal.org/project/autotag and  
http://drupal.org/project/pathauto to you inventory of modules (pun  
intended) to have the nodes tagged by a preset list of tags, e.g.  
Honda, and a URL path of sample.com/Honda that will list a tagged page  
of inventory.

> I understand that I am going to have to make a custom form. From what I
> understand, the best way to go about this is to take what the client
> inputted, and use that information to get the form to query the database,
> then display the nodes which match the criteria. However, I am a little
> fuzzy about the details. Has anyone set up anything like this before, or
> does anyone have any advice on the best way to go about doing something like
> this?
>

Well, maybe so or maybe not.  There are already modules dealing with  
taxonomy that may help your cause.

--
Earnie
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