Basic vs. Advanced Query

[Alicia_Walton]

I have created a website that has four forms that are slight variations of one another.  My website is a listing of a particular item that visitors wish to either sell or donate.  So I have a form for group items, single items, donated items and then shoes. When visitors post items to my website, they would use the appropriate form (i.e., for donated items they would use the donations form) and the items would subsequently appear on the appropriate page.  However, if for example a visitor searches for a red dress, I would like for them to get results from all four forms.  Also, I would like them to be able to search by any one of the categories of a particular table (i.e., size, color, location) to get results.  So I’m wondering, should I be creating an advanced query or four basic queries?  Where do I begin?  Thank you.

[Guest]

basic/advanced doesn't matter... your desire sounds basic regardless of terminology. Start by choosing a server side scripting language.

[Alicia_Walton]

I am using PHP.

[Guest]

option 1:

build a custom script that concatenates the additional items into the query or goes on to the next query item if the field is blank.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/451266?tstart=0

option 2:

use php to create an xml syntax and use xml as a DataSet in spry non-desctructive filer.

php to xml:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/utils/query2xml.html

spry catgory filter:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/data_region/MultipleFiltersModeSample.html

spry keyword filter:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/data_region/SuggestSample.html

[bregent]

> I would like for them to get results from all four forms.

Forms are simply mechanisms to input data into a database. How you retrieve results is not dependent on how many forms you use to capture data.

>So I’m wondering, should I be creating an advanced query or four basic queries? 

We don't know enough about your design and requirements to answer that. But why create 4 queries when one will do?

>Where do I begin?

Start by telling us something about your database design. Has it been designed yet? If so, can you show us the schema and provide sample data?