Need tips: searching on dropdown selection and text entry

kilbey1

Hi there...

I want to create a form in which the user will
a. select a dropdown option (specificially to search by skill, or name) and
b. enter that info in the text box.

Therefore, if the user selects 'by name' and enters 'joe blow', the query should be based on this.

Is this overkill? Are there other suggestions for doing this?

Yes, I am going to use a database (MySQL). The user will want to search on name, or skill. Maybe it's easier just to search on text field (ie. query like=whatever_is_value_of_textfield)? But that could get scary with LOTS of entries, no?
Example: search on 'mysql' skill.
1000 clients have mysql skills!

How to narrow this one down?

kilbey1

I started a code here, which may or may not work out. It's Javascript with layers. How well will this play with PHP? The PHP part of this is two-fold:
1. can I populate the dropdown box (originally created in Javascript) with PHP once created?
and
2. in pulling back form fields brought back by the layer, how well does PHP work this way?

Not sure I am making sense there. Feel free to paste the code into a blank page and test it out for yourself to see what I mean.

<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<script language="javascript">
// dHTML code
function doIt1(hideit)
{
if (document.getElementById)
  document.getElementById('myLayer').style.visibility = (hideIt) ? 'visible' : 'visible';
else if (document.all)
   document.all['myLayer'].style.visibility = (hideIt) ? 'visible' : 'visible';
else if (document.layers)
  document.layers['myLayer'].visibility = (hideIt) ? 'visible' : 'show';
}

function doIt2(value)
{
if (document.getElementById)
  document.getElementById('myLayer').style.visibility = 'visible';
else if (document.all)
   document.all['myLayer'].style.visibility = 'visible';
else if (document.layers)
  document.layers['myLayer'].visibility = 'show';

  var txt = "";

   switch(value)
   {
     case 0:
       txt = "Skill: <select name=select2><option value=1>DBA</option></select>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Experience: <select name=select><option value=N/A selected><option value=1>1</option><option value=2>2</option><option value=3>3</option><option value=4>4</option><option value=5>5</option><option value=5+>5+</option></select>";
       break;
     case 1:
       txt = "Geographic region coming soon.";
       break;
     }   

   if (document.layers)
   {
     document.layers['myLayer'].document.open();
     document.layers['myLayer'].document.write(txt);
     document.layers['myLayer'].document.close();
   }
  else if (document.getElementById)
      document.getElementById('myLayer').innerHTML = txt;
  else if (document.all)
      document.all.myLayer.innerHTML = txt;
}
//-->
</script>

</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
                                <tr>
                                  <td valign="top"> 
                                    <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                                      <tr>
                                        <td width="13%">Browse:</td>
                                        <td width="87%">
 <form name="replaceForm">
                                            <p> 
                                              <input type="radio" name="R2" onclick="doIt2(0)">
                                              By Skill 
                                              <input
            type="radio" name="R2" onclick="doIt2(1)">
                                              By Name 
                                              <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
                                            </p>
                                          </form>           

		  <div id="myLayer"
        style="position:absolute;top:225px;left:200px;visibility:hidden"> This 
              is a layer</div>
                                        </td>
                                     </tr>
                                    </table>
                                    <p>&nbsp;</p>
                                    <p><a href="test.php">Add Candidate</a></p>
                                    <p>&nbsp;</p>
                              </td>
                                </tr>
                              </table>
</body>
</html>