Search form issue

By: Randy Murray | Asked: 09/21/2024
ForumsCategory: Paid Help WantedSearch form issue
Randy Murray asked 2 weeks ago
I have a search form and view setup on a page. It was working fine until I made a few changes to other forms and may have copied one of the search dropboxes and used that copy in another form, not sure but I was tinkering. I have check all the naming conventions, rebuilt the dropbox in the search form, double checked the notification confirmation page set up and everything looks good. The search form has several drop boxes and a dynamic dropbox along with two text field search boxes, they all work fine but the moment I introduce a selection from the "title" dropbox I have  fail. I need to sort this out fast, as this is critical to the usability of the site and pivital to accessing information. My site is www.politicalscorecards.ca and the search page is the "Scorecards" tab.  Please advise if you can provide expert trouble shooting help quickly, Thank you Randy [email protected] 
1 Answers
Victor Font answered 2 weeks ago
You have a bug when building your query string. You left the "=" out of the title parameter. This is your query string: "&titleSenator"
Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

Thxs Victor, it's the little things that matter..lol I inserted the = sign into the string on the search page confirmation string and now I am partially operational? When I trigger a search with "MLA" selected it works but "MP" only returns 3 records - vacant positons? I am in the middle of building a national scorecard to address Bill C-293 and my head is not in the search problem.. I can't see it? I really appreciate your help, thoughts?

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

Also some of the the other options in the title dropbox do not have records yet, only MLA, MP and Senator. thxs

Victor Font replied 2 weeks ago

Formidable does not save empty field values. You will get a "no records found" message if the title field didn't have a value that somehow matches MP. You'll have to use the form entries page or PHPMyAdmin to troubleshoot your data issues.

As an FYI, when I build search forms that use dropdowns to select values, I use the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook to assure the only values in the dropdown are values that are actually stored for that field in the database. Searching for only existing values assures better results.

https://formidableforms.com/knowledgebase/frm_setup_new_fields_vars/

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

Thank you, I work on that

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

Victor, I really did ask for "Paid" help and feel like I am leaning on you. Please let me know if it's ok to keep asking you for help like this. I have update three of the records in the MP title entry form and now when I execute a search I get the three records that I just updated. I looked in my WP-adm data base files and see that image records attached to these updaters appear in the same folder as all the other MP image records, so the data base has them stored fine. What do you suggest? Should I blow away the search title dropdown box and redo it, your suggestion above I am not yet completely comfortable with. Seems like the search form, that "title" box, does not see all the records? So frustrating, any guidance is appreciated.

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

I am now thinking that when I encountered the problem with the = sign missing in the confirmation search string that I deleted the original dropdown box in the search form and rebuilt it before I fixed the = sign error? Could the problem be that I changed the original dropdown box in the entry form and now the search dropdown does not see the original data? People are depending on me to get this fixed as it is used in Town Hall presentations starting tomorrow here in BC ...

Victor Font replied 2 weeks ago

<p>What do you mean you changed the dropdown in the entry form? If you changed the original dropdown on the entry form by deleting it and adding it back in, you deleted any data associated with that field since the time it was originally added to the form.</p>

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

sorry to be confusing Victor. I thought I may have done that but checked and all the data is still there and all the records are returned for all other boxes. I rebuilt the complete search page and have the same error. for some reason the dropdown box fields are not connecting to the data... yet the three new records I entered today are returned when I search the title dropdown. So old records entered and identified with a specific title ( MP, MLA etc) are not found but the new records with the same identification are.

Randy Murray replied 2 weeks ago

I am using the same entry form to collect the data, for the records , that has not changed..

Victor Font replied 2 weeks ago

You need someone to look at the site. I sent you a DM.

Making the Best WordPress Plugin even better - Together

Take on bigger projects with confidence knowing you have access to an entire community of Formidable Experts and Professionals who have your back when the going gets tough. You got this!
Join the community
crossarrow-right