Search Box urgent

[zobi316]

I hope you can help, its pretty urgent. I have created a search box which potentially works. But I wish to insert the results in to the text box rather than having them on a new page.

I have a text box called ref and a search button next to it. so When I put in a search in the ref and click search, the results should appear in the ref text box. I hope you understand what I mean. I know you ahve to define a variable and assign it to the text box, but the question is how> please help.

Below is the code for the search box:

<?
$myServer = 'learoyd-sql';
$myUser = 'sa';
$myPass = '25141260';
$myDB = 'CompanyL';
$SpecRef = $_GET['query'];
print ("$SpecRef");

//connection to the database
$dbhandle = mssql_connect($myServer, $myUser, $myPass)
or die("Couldn't connect to SQL Server on $myServer");

<form action="search.php" method="get">
<input type="text" name="query" id="query" size="40" value="" action="include/js_suggest/suggest.php" columns="2" autocomplete="off" delay="1500" />
<input type="submit" value="Search">
<input type="hidden" name="search" value="1">
</form>
<center><a href="search2.php?adv=1">Advanced search</a></center>
</div>

//select a database to work with
$selected = mssql_select_db($myDB, $dbhandle)
or die("Couldn't open database $myDB");
//error message (not found message)begins
$XX = "No Matches Found";
//query details table begins
$query = ("SELECT FROM dbo.DesignControl WHERE Spec_Ref LIKE'$SpecRef%' ");
// $query = ("SELECT FROM dbo.DesignProcess");

print('$query');

//execute the SQL query and return records
$result = mssql_query($query);

$numRows = mssql_num_rows($result);
echo "<h1>" . $numRows . " Row" . ($numRows == 1 ? "" : "s") . " Returned </h1>";

//display the results
while($row = mssql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<li>" . $row["Spec_Ref"] . "</li>";
}
//close the connection
mssql_close($dbhandle);

/*while ($row = @mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
$variable1=$row["Player"];
$variable2=$row["Avg"];
$variable3=$row["HR"];
$variable4=$row["RBI"];
//table layout for results

print ("<tr>");
print ("<td>$variable1</td>");
print ("<td>$variable2</td>");
print ("<td>$variable3</td>");
print ("<td>$variable4</td>");
print ("</tr>");
}
//below this is the function for no record!!

if (!$variable1)
{
print ("$XX");
}
//end */
?>

[etully]

What you need is Ajax.

Change the action on the Search's submit button to point to a Javascript function called populate_search() instead of pointing to a new page.

Then write a Javascript function called populate_search() that obtains the value in the search field and passes it to a Javascript function called get_search_results(search) which should look like this:

function get_search_results(params) {
url = "http://www.yourdomain.com/your_search_script.php";
var url = url + "?query=" + params + "&sid=" + Math.random();
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { req = new XMLHttpRequest(); }
if (window.ActiveXObject) { req = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP"); }
if (req) { req.onreadystatechange = do_me_when_done; req.open("GET", url, true); req.send(); }
}

function do_me_when_done() {
        if (req.readyState == 4) { // Complete
                if (req.status == 200) { // OK response
                        document.getElementById('ref').innerHTML = req.responseText;
                }
                else {
                        alert("Ajax Problem: " + req.statusText);
}      }       }

This will obtain the search results from your search script and put them in the box called ref.

[zobi316]

How would I Change the action on the Search's submit button to point to a Javascript function called populate_search() instead of pointing to a new page.

This is my code for the form i am currently using;

<form action="search.php" method="get">Spec Ref
<input type="text" name="Spec Ref" id="Spec Ref" size="10" value="" action="Pre-Press.php" columns="2" autocomplete="off" delay="1500" />

<input type="submit" value="Search" /> (Is this where i would change it)?

[johanafm]

<input type="button" onclick="functionThatDoesYourXMLHttpRequest()" value="Search" />

[zobi316]

woudn't this remove the text box though. I want the results in the text box. Is there no way is can be done in PHP?

[zobi316]

i've just tried it but its not working for some reason.

<input type="button" onclick="Search.php()" value="Search" /> = This is what I put in

[scrupul0us]

what you need to do is:

1) remove the action from the form

2) in the form submit/button input tag, set the onClick equal to the name of the javascript function that does the AJAX (as johanafm posted) and returns the data to your text box

please post your entire page's code wrapped in the boards PHP tags for future help