replacing a query with Ajax?

[turpentyne]

I've built an html search page that passes the search terms to a results.php page. Down the side of the results page is a "refine search" form with numerous dropdowns to refine the search.

I'm trying to figure out how to change out the query so that when someone chooses an option to refine their results, it changes the query to include a search of the relevant table and column they want to narrow by.

Can I replace just the query in my script with an include to a separate php file that has several " if else" statements to drop the correct query in? I'm thinking then I can have the form submit its info to that 2nd php file. (I know, it sounds like Ajax, but I don't know anything about Ajax... and it's slightly frightening! hah!)

[nevvermind]

Let's see if I got this right.

You could have:

<form action="results.php" method="POST">
  <input type="text" name="query" />
  <select name="refine">
    <option>...</option>
    <option>...</option>
    <option>...</option>
  </select>
  <input type="submit" value="Search" />
</form>

And then, you could:

<?php

if (isset($_POST['query'])) {
    // do a normal db query

} elseif (isset($_POST['query']) && isset($_POST['refine'])) {
    // do a query base on the selection (the value of $_POST['refine']

} else echo "You've got to search something, now, don't you?";

[bradgrafelman]

@: The 'elseif' branch in your code is unreachable; perhaps it should have been listed first?

[nevvermind]

Oops.

<?php

if (isset($_POST['query']) && !empty($_POST['query'])) {

if (isset($_POST['refine']) && !empty($_POST['refine'])) {
    // do a query base on the selection (the value of $_POST['refine']
} else {
     // do a normal db query
}

} else echo "You've got to search something, now, don't you?";