[ic] My solution to modular options . . . almost

[Ed LaFrance]

At 03:13 AM 6/26/2002 +0900, you wrote:
>I've been working on a way around the failings of modular options in 
>Interchange 4.8x.  My problem was allowing a customer to create a custome 
>bridal veil with multiple layers and options for those layers. After 
>several ideas, I finally came up with a method of using several pages to 
>make a multistep process for creating a custom veil.  I've done most of 
>the work, but there is one little hitch that needs to be worked out.
>
>Basicly there are three steps, each step a different page showing products 
>from different categories.  One page is trims, another accents, another 
>options.  After selecting a trim for example(choosing a product from the 
>trim category) the user clicks a button that says "add trim" and goes 
>straight to the next step.  On clicking the button, the product goes to 
>the cart, and the user is directed to a new page which lists the products 
>from the next category.  The problem is the seach for the category seems 
>to work, but no results are found.
>
>Here is the code that should pass the seach through:
><FORM ACTION="[area order]" METHOD=POST>
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_order_item"  VALUE="[item-code]">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_session_id" VALUE="[data session id]">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_searchtype" VALUE="db">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_search_file" VALUE="products">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_search_field" VALUE="category">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_sort_field" VALUE="description">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_searchspec" VALUE="Layer1 Trims">
>    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_nextpage" VALUE="veil_layer1_step2">
>
>This has the all the options (I think), as the category link in the left 
>menu.  That link successfully shows the right page (veil_layer1_step2 in 
>this case), and seaches for "Layer1 Trims" in the category field of the 
>product table. 
>http://toknowaveil.com/~toknowav/cgi-bin/cart.cgi/scan/fi=products/sp=veil_layer1_step2/st=db/co=yes/sf=category/se=Layer1%20Trims/tf=description/va=banner_text%3d/va=banner_image%3d.html
>
>But when I pass the seachspec variable to the nextpage, I get the 
>following message "Sorry, no matches for Layer1 Trims".  And at the bottom 
>of the page, this message:"Errors: No search was found"  I'm basicly using 
>the standard results.html code.
>
>I'm sure this is a stupid error, but I've tried and tried and can't seem 
>to find it.  Can anyone see what I've overlooked?
>
>-Cameron

The problem is that your form is not actually a search, even though you 
have populated it with search-related variables. The form action is set by 
the action parameter or an mv_todo/mv_doit input, and in your case it is 
clearly 'order', not 'search'.

The easiest thing for you might be to do an in-page search on 
veil_layer1_step2, something like:

[search-region
         more=1
         search="
                 fi=products
                 st=db
                 sf=category
                 se=Layer 1 Trims
                 tf=description
                 ml=100
         "
]
[search-list]
         ([item-*] tags go here
[/search-list]
[/search-region]

You can then remove the search-related inputs from your form example above.

- Ed L.


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