Build Search Form Independent of Profile Forms

What I would like is a way to build search forms independent of profile forms.  If I go to the search view of the profile builder, any changes made to an item on the search form is also applied to the profile/join forms.  I don't know what Boonex was thinking but the search forms need to be independent from the profile/join forms.

The table in question is sys_profile_fields; perhaps an additional column to the sys_profile_fields table to hold the settings for the search form.  The current field for this is Control; add ControlSearch to hold the Control settings for the search items.  This would allow one to have a drop-down select on the join form and profile edit form and on the search form we could have checkboxes.  We could build better search forms this way.

Guess i am not sure what it is your trying to do.

How can you search for something if the data has not been provided by the member joining. What was boonex thinking?

Well the same thing that i am thinking. The search form is for searches related to the profile fields. The data a member enters when they join.

Oh.. Ok, i get it. You want separate control types for the data. Ah, well ok.

Never tried, so i will have to think about it.

I am not familiar with the form builders code; it will need to be examine to see if it can be separated.  Then the code when it goes to display the search form will need to be able to use the additional field from the table when building the form controls.  I have looked in the market and there is nothing listed that will allow independent search forms from profile/join forms.

These changes won't effect future upgrades?

Reasons I stopped modding sites.

Another thing to consider. Because of dolphins builders which in one way makes things easier for the admin of the site also adds limitations. Convenience comes with a price.

And that is the type of control selected also determines what data type is used to store that information in the database. One control type may not be compatible with another in terms of how the data is stored.

The other course is to have a completely independent search engine from the form builder.

For a FaceSucks type of site, searching is not important.  However, if one is trying to build a robust dating site, then searching for compatible members becomes very important.

Now, let's say I have a field, "Hair Colour", and on the join form I use a select control with a list of hair colours.  A member joins, clicks on the select box and chooses a colour.  Now on the search form, I need a way for a member to choose the hair colours they wish to look for, it is no longer a one choice deal.  Now, I do see that one can add select boxes on the search form dynamically using the + icon.  However, what I am seeing is that if I include the "Hair Colour" select field, it is populated with a default value and I have not been able to figure out how to have a select box without a default value, even if you leave the default value field blank, Dolphin will automatically use the first value in the list as the default.  So this makes it impossible for me to build a search form where the member can search on hair colour and not eye colour; if I include eye colour on the search form, it gets a default value that is used in the search. 

What I might have to do is to set up a test site so my explanations can be seen; visual is often better than words.

This is needed for a site I am helping to build and even if has to be changed/added for any future upgrades, it is a must.  This is another area of Dolphin where Boonex got it wrong.

I am not sure I follow this from a search side of things.  The search form is not storing data so how would would it affect how data is stored; what do you mean?

Let's work with the example of hair colour.  On the join form it is a single select box with a list of options.  When the join form is processed, the selected hair colour is stored in the Hair Colour field.  If I changed this on the search form to multiple selection with checkboxes; the idea being that one can select several hair colours to be passed to the search engine, how could that affect things?

The owners of the site I am working on have given permission to list the site.

actorscrowd.com

You can see the current People Search form in action.

No. It's not storing but it is retrieving. Some of the built in functions in dolphin may be affected. I am not saying it will, but i am a coder, so i have trained myself to think ahead, think of as many possibilities as possible and any problems that may occur.

It's just something coders learn to do because if we don't, things are missed, or we end up writing code that just won't work for other situations that will be needed in the future. This is an example of that. Something that obviously was not thought of. Also one of the reasons i had to pull my service menu builder out of the market until i write a new version. I did not think ahead with something and it resulted in a serious flaw. I am babbling. I will stop now.

Because dolphin stores data in the database and determines what field type to use based on the control type is can also affect any functions that need to read that data as well.

"Now, I do see that one can add select boxes on the search form dynamically using the + icon.  However, what I am seeing is that if I include the "Hair Colour" select field, it is populated with a default value and I have not been able to figure out how to have a select box without a default value, even if you leave the default value field blank, Dolphin will automatically use the first value in the list as the default."

What if you created a value in HairColors called 'Please select hair color' - and have that as the first option in your table. Thus, this will always be the default option.

Then when you try to perform a search, it will try to select profiles that have hair colour set to "Please select hair colour"; that is the problem I am seeing with the select boxes.  If someone knows how to build search forms in Dolphin that work the way search forms are suppose to, I welcome it, please come in.  How are the dating sites built with Dolphin handling searching of profiles?

Forget the join/profile/search builder, forget it altogether.

What we need is a search form builder that is separate.  It would be nice if it would pull out the values automatically that we have set up in the join form; such as hair colour, Blonde, Redhead, Black, etc.  We could then add to the form say checkboxes for members to use to select the hair colours, and eye colours, and body types they are interested in finding.  Then the form is submitted and the query is built and we get real results back.

That is the way it should work, that IS the way it works on all the dating sites out on the internet.

I am wondering if I can just hand build the form and submit it to the current search engine; I may can use one of form builders to help build a form and save some time.  More work but better than what we have now.

What I don't understand is why Dolphin is in version 7.1 and this shitty search is still a part of Dolphin?

You can achieve this with Advanced Search Form. All you need is to change it's control type from Default (Dropdown boxes) to Chekboxes and it'll start appearing on search forms as a set of checkboxes. 

I am wondering if I can just hand build the form and submit it to the current search engine

Yes, this is possible also.

Thanks AntonLV, this will help greatly with building better search forms.

 I am revisiting this topic as I ran into issues today in which it was needed for me to have a solution to this dilemma. Although a little crude, it works perfectly for what we need.

So, to recap - the search does not allow you to have a blank value in the search form if you use the selector, and multiple selector field types for your profile field.

First off, all of my fields that use the selector or the multiple selector field type are entered into the Predefined Values area in the admin of the site. In my case, I created a new table called ProviderType. (1st pic)

Then, I created the field in the Profile Fields builder (2nd,3rd pic)

Then used the following sql statement to add an entry in which the Value is blank, but the displayed caption is  -Any-. (see 1st pic)

INSERT INTO `sys_pre_values` (`Key`, `Value`, `Order`, `LKey`, `LKey2`, `LKey3`, `Extra`, `Extra2`, `Extra3`) VALUES ('ProviderType', '  ', '0', '-Any-', '', '', '', '', '');

So now, on edit profile page and the join page, all of the fields which are a select or multiple select have a visible option of -Any-, but in actuality it enters nothing in the Value field. (4th pic)

Thus, allowing for a search of empty fields.(5th pic)

We went with AntonLV's module, very reasonably priced and it does work.  However, it is always nice to have other options so thank you Professor for sharing.

Why this was not pushed long before I came to Dolphin I don't understand.