Filter based Search Form

Question

Previously on EE I've used Low Search to generate a filter based search form, based on categories. But with Craft I can't seem to find an add-on - Or even know if I need one!

What I'm trying to achieve is a filer menu with categories e.g.:

[ ] Category 1
[x] Category 2
[ ] Category 3
[x] Category 4
   [ ] Category 4.1
   [ ] Category 4.2
[ ] Category 5

I've been reading over the documentation over at:

https://craftcms.com/docs/searching and https://craftcms.com/docs/templating/search-form

But I'm struggling to see how I can make this work within a search form itself.

I'm thinking I can generate a query fine to search the categories. But I can't work out how to link what is checked with a query.

Any help would be gooooood :)

Answer 1

I managed to figure this out by looking through a few other posts:

• Advanced Search
• Building a simple search by multiple categories
• Building Results From Advanced Search Form
• How to filter entries by clicking multiple categories on front end
• Fetching entries from an advanced search form on the front end

Which I then took their knowledge and put together my own form and results template. With the results I wanted the same code & template to be used for search results AND the general "knowledge" page.

Filter Form

<form action="{{ url('knowledge') }}">

    <ul>

        {% set categoryEntries = craft.entries.limit(null) %}

        {% for category in craft.categories.group('knowledge') %}

            {% set categoriesEntryCount = categoryEntries.relatedTo(category).total() %}

            <li>
              <input type="checkbox" name="category[]" value="{{ category.slug }}" id="{{ category.slug }}">
              <label for="{{ category.slug }}">{{ category.title }} ({{ categoriesEntryCount }})</label>
            </li>

        {% endfor %}

    </ul>

</form>

Results

    {% set parameters =
        {
            section: 'channelKnowledge',
            limit: '1'
        }
    %}

    {% set categoryQuery = craft.request.getParam('category') %}

    {% if categoryQuery %}
        {% set categoryQueryCategories = craft.categories.group('knowledge').slug(categoryQuery) %}
        {% set entries = craft.entries(parameters).relatedTo(categoryQueryCategories).order('score') %}
    {% else %}
        {% set entries = craft.entries(parameters) %}
    {% endif %}

    {% paginate entries as channelKnowledgeEntries %}

    {% if entries|length %}

        {% for entry in channelKnowledgeEntries %}

            {{ entry.title }}

        {% endfor %}

    {% else %}

        <p>No Results</p>

    {% endif %}

    {% if paginate %}

        <div class="pagination">
            {% if paginate.prevUrl %}
                <span>
                    <a href="{{ paginate.prevUrl }}" class="back">Previous</a>
                </span>
            {% endif %}
            <ul>
                {% for page, url in paginate.getPrevUrls(5) %}
                    <li>
                        <a href="{{ url }}">{{ page }}</a>
                    </li>
                {% endfor %}
                <li>
                    <a href="" class="active">
                        {{ paginate.currentPage }}
                    </a>
                </li>
                {% for page, url in paginate.getNextUrls(5) %}
                    <li>
                        <a href="{{ url }}">{{ page }}</a>
                    </li>
                {% endfor %}
            </ul>
            {% if paginate.nextUrl %}
                <span>
                    <a href="{{ paginate.nextUrl }}" class="forward">Next</a>
                </span>
            {% endif %}
        </div>

    {% endif %}

{% endpaginate %}

Answer 2

Well, would this be what you are looking for? - https://github.com/iainurquhart/FacetedNav_CraftPlugin