Question

Javascript search website

Asked by: Simplecat

Hi
I am developing a business search site. At the moment users can type in a category into a text field such as 'Architects' and they will be directed to a architects.html page. What I need is for the users to type in a category into one textfield and a location into another textfield ie( 'Architects' & 'Canterbury,

Here is the code i have so far

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Search</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<script language="javascript">
// holds list of search words as well as page to be redirected
var context = "mechanics.html ! Mechanics | plumber.html ! Plumbers | architects.html ! architects";
// populates the data into an array
var list = contextToArray(context);

// function that parses a string and returns a named array
function contextToArray(value)
{
var listArray = [];
var rows = value.split("|");
for (var i=0;i<rows.length;i++)
{
var fields = rows[i].split("!");
var page = trim(fields[0]);
var text = trim(fields[1]).toLowerCase();
listArray[text] = page;

}
return listArray;
}

// function to trim leading and trailing spaces
function trim(text)
{
return text.replace(/(^\s*)|(\s*$)/g, "");

}

function searchResults()
{
// get the text, trim it and lower all the cases
var text = trim(document.forms[0]["criteria"].value).toLowerCase();
// search from the array now

if (! list[text])
{
// show alert when no results were found
alert("No Resulting Page Found");
}
else
{
window.location.href = list[text];
}

}

</script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">


</script>

</head>

<body>
<div align="center">
<div align="left">
<table width="883" height="588" border="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr>
<td width="800" height="94" valign="top"><img src="file:///C|/asmsearch2/asmlogo.jpg" width="800" height="80"></td>
<td width="77"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#C5D4E9"><form name="myform" method="post" onsubmit= "searchResults(); return false;" >
<div align="left">
<p><br>
<font color="#4F558F" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">  <strong>Search
For</strong></font>:
<input name="criteria" type="text" size="35" >
   <font color="#4F558F" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">    <strong>Located
in</strong></font><strong>:</strong>
<input type="text" name="textfield">
   
<input type="submit" value="search" onclick ="searchResults();">
       <br>
<br>
<font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>   Home
| Useful info | Advertise with us | Web Design </strong></font></p>
</div>
</form></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="407" valign="top">    <br>
                   </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<center>

</center>

<p>
<center>
<p align="center"><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>  </strong></font></p>
</center>
<p align="center">

<div align="left"></div>
</body>
</html>

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

Plus...

30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On: 2004-12-11 at 07:00:12ID21238976
Tags: color
,; bgcolor
Topic: JavaScript
Participating Experts: 2
Points: 500
Comments: 8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

"The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
"Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
"Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Free Tech Articles

WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Watch More

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

by: GwynforWebPosted on 2004-12-11 at 09:38:49ID: 12800371

in what form and where is info concerning the site/category/location triplets, are you intending to construct a string similar to the one you have and then parse that, or is the info on the page in some other form that may allow the page innerHTML to be parse and hence no need for string construction

by: ramu_src2kPosted on 2004-12-12 at 03:27:39ID: 12803509

Yes, as GwynforWeb asked can you explain a bit more about the location.. one more thing, you called the function searchResults() twice for the form..
<form name="myform" method="post" onsubmit= "searchResults(); return false;" >
........................
<input type="submit" value="search" onclick ="searchResults();">

How would it be, if you call only once like,
<form name="myform" method="post" onsubmit= "searchResults(); return false;" >
........................
<input type="submit" value="search">

Anyway ,your search engine searches well but could u give a bit more description about location..

by: SimplecatPosted on 2004-12-12 at 08:13:49ID: 12804176

Thanks for your answers

Basically at the moment users can type in architects for example, and will be directed to the relevant architects.html page. What i need is to have a set of html pages defined by location. For example ( Canterbury_architects.html, Maidstone _architects.html, Ashford_architects.html. etc) The user can then search in thier particular location by typing architects in one textfield and canterbury in another and be directed to the Canterbury_architects.html page. similiar to http://www. yell.com

I hope this makes it a bit clearer.

Regards

Simplecat

by: ramu_src2kPosted on 2004-12-12 at 09:34:48ID: 12804401

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Search</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<script language="javascript">
// holds list of search words as well as page to be redirected
var context = "mechanics.html ! Mechanics | plumber.html ! Plumbers | architects.html ! architects";
var locations = "A; B; C; D"; //------------------------------->add locations seperated with ;

// populates the data into an array
var list = contextToArray(context);
var loc_list_st = locationStatus(locations); //------------------------------->this function is defined same as u did, this is to check the status value of the location entered, it its value is 1 the location is valid , otherwise false.

var relation = []; //------------------------------->This array holds the relation betw. location and criteria. The value is 1 if relation exists between a location and criteria.

relation["a_mechanics"]=relation["b_mechanics"]=relation["c_mechanics"]=relation["d_mechanics"]=
relation["a_plumber"]=relation["b_plumber"]=relation["d_plumber"]=
relation["a_architects"]=relation["c_architects"]=1;

// function that parses a string and returns a named array
function contextToArray(value)
{
var listArray = [];
var rows = value.split("|");
for (var i=0;i<rows.length;i++)
{
var fields = rows[i].split("!");
var page = trim(fields[0]);
var text = trim(fields[1]).toLowerCase();
listArray[text] = page;

}
return listArray;
}

function locationStatus(str) //-------------------------------> This is the function added extra......for the status
{
var listArray = [];
var rows = str.split(";");
for (var i=0;i<rows.length;i++)
{
var text = trim(rows[i]).toLowerCase();
listArray[text] = 1;
}
return listArray;
}

// function to trim leading and trailing spaces
function trim(text)
{
return text.replace(/(^\s*)|(\s*$)/g, "");

}

function searchResults()
{
// get the text, trim it and lower all the cases
var text = trim(document.forms[0]["criteria"].value).toLowerCase();
// search from the array now
var loc = trim(document.forms[0]["textfield"].value).toLowerCase(); //-------------------------------> get the location entered by the user

//-------------------------------> if loc field is not empty test its validity, it it is not defiened, display error or error page.
if(loc!="")
if(!loc_list_st[loc]) alert("No file found in the location given.");
else
{
//-------------------------------> if loc is valid, test the text value
if (! list[text])
{
// show alert when no results were found
alert("No Resulting Page Found, the criteria might be wrong.");
}
else
{
//-------------------------------> if text is valid , test the relation value for loc & text, if it is valid display the respective page otherwise error page
var comb = loc + "_" + text;
var link = loc + "_" + list[text];
if(relation[comb]) window.location.href = link;
else alert("The specified page is not defined at the location.");
}

}

}

</script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
function MM_reloadPage(init) { //reloads the window if Nav4 resized
if (init==true) with (navigator) {if ((appName=="Netscape")&&(parseInt(appVersion)==4)) {
document.MM_pgW=innerWidth; document.MM_pgH=innerHeight; onresize=MM_reloadPage; }}
else if (innerWidth!=document.MM_pgW || innerHeight!=document.MM_pgH) location.reload();
}
MM_reloadPage(true);
</script>

</head>

<body>
<div align="center">
<div align="left">
<table width="883" height="588" border="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr>
<td width="800" height="94" valign="top"><img src="file:///C|/asmsearch2/asmlogo.jpg" width="800" height="80"></td>
<td width="77"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#C5D4E9"><form name="myform" method="post" onsubmit= "searchResults(); return false;" >
<div align="left">
<p><br>
<font color="#4F558F" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">  <strong>Search
For</strong></font>:
<input name="criteria" type="text" size="35" >
   <font color="#4F558F" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">    <strong>Located
in</strong></font><strong>:</strong>
<input type="text" name="textfield">
   
<input type="submit" value="search">
       <br>
<br>
<font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>   Home
| Useful info | Advertise with us | Web Design </strong></font></p>
</div>
</form></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="407" valign="top">    <br>
                   </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<center>

</center>

<p>
<center>
<p align="center"><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>  </strong></font></p>
</center>
<p align="center">

<div align="left"></div>
</body>
</html>

by: SimplecatPosted on 2004-12-13 at 15:17:12ID: 12814821

Thankyou for the code and it works fine. Theres just one last thing that needs attention. if for example the user types in 'architect' instead of the plural 'architects' for example, the script will not recognise this and will display the error alert.

Is there anyway that this problem can be eradicated

Regards

Simplecat

by: ramu_src2kPosted on 2004-12-13 at 16:05:53ID: 12815039

Yes, it is possible. Its ofcourse good idea too. For that you need to search the substring in a string. I mean, if user enters architet, arch, archit like these, you have to show all the strings to the user which contain the entered string. Do you get what I mean. The procedure is, store all the places in an array, as:

var crits = [];
crits[0]="mechanics";crits[1]="plumbers";crits[2]="architects";

now, search for the entered string in the array as:

function serachCrit(strng)
{
var i,k;
var found;
var listArray = [];
k=0;
for(i=0;i<crits.length;i++)
{
found=crits[i].indexOf(strng)
if(found!=-1) { listArray[k]=crits[i]; k++; }
}
return listArray;
}

Here, if the returned listArray size is 0 means, no record found otherwise there are some records which contain the string entered by the user as substring somewhere. So , display those to the user. You can also provide facility for the user as and when he types he can see the available criteria with respect to his string in a small dropdown like box. If you dont want so much complication, use in a simple way as:

function serachCrit(strng)
{
var i;
var found;
for(i=0;i<crits.length;i++)
{
found=crits[i].indexOf(strng)
if(found!=-1) return crits[i];
}
return "NotFound";
}
-------------
In searchResults(), after taking text value, modify as,

function searchResults()
{
// get the text, trim it and lower all the cases
var text = trim(document.forms[0]["criteria"].value).toLowerCase();

text = serachCrit(text); //-------------------------------------------------->Add this, remaining code is same as previous
..................

you can do the same for locations also, but check if the location field is mandatory for you. If so, make changes as you want..

Cheers..

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

For individual users
Instant access to solutions
Ask your tech questions
Start your 30-day Free Trial

Business Accounts

Perfect for organizations
Multiple users
Save over 36%
Create a Business Account

Answer for Membership

Earn free access
Showcase your knowledge
No credit card required
Sign Up to Answer

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...

Question

Javascript search website

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

color

bgcolor

JavaScript

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Related Solutions

Free Tech Articles

Cloud Class Webinars

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Answers

3 Ways to Join

The Experts

The Experts

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

In the Press

In the Press