Narrow down search results WordPress
I am trying to have some template pages that have a bit of a "Narrow This Search" function.
Lets say I have my post type and taxonomies set up like this:
Post Type = "<strong>Movies</strong>"
Taxonomy = "<strong>Genre</strong>"
Taxonomy = "<strong>Director</strong>"
So if someone is on page that shows all of the posts (10 per page) in the <strong>Genre </strong>"<em>Comedy</em>", on the sidebar will list all of the taxonomy terms for <strong>Directors</strong>. Clicking on a link for one of the terms, example "<em>Judd Apatow</em>", will go to a page that now displays post in the Comedy genre and directed by Judd Apatow.
Anyone know how to do this?
This is what I currently Have:
On the sidebar in my taxonomy_genre.php template I have:
...Main Article Stuff
<aside>
<div class="widget">
<a class="widget-title title" href="#">Directors</a>
<ul>
<?php
$args=array(
'orderby' => 'name',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
$terms = get_terms('director', $args);
foreach($terms as $term) {
echo '<li>';
echo '<a href="' . get_bloginfo("url").'/movies/directors/'. $term->slug. '" title="' . sprintf( __( "View: %s" ), $term->name ) . '" ' . '>' . $term->name.'</a>';
echo '</li>';
}
?>
</ul>
</div>
</aside>
So clicking on a director will take me to the taxonomy_directors.php template, and will display all of the movies in the Comedy genre and also the director clicked on from the previous page.
Answers (4)
Maor Barazany answers:
You may write your own code to do that, but it might be easier for you to try a plugin of "faceted search"
Take a look at these :
[[LINK href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/faceted-search/"]]http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/faceted-search/[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/faceted-search-widget/"]]http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/faceted-search-widget/[[/LINK]]
Anthony Moore comments:
Ideally I would not like to use a plugin.
Arnav Joy answers:
so if so if you click on "Judd Apatow" at sidebar then you will get list of posts in "Judd Apatow" term , right?
i am asking this question because i am not clear with your following statement
<blockquote>So clicking on a director will take me to the taxonomy_directors.php template, and will display all of the movies in the Comedy genre and also the director clicked on from the previous page. </blockquote>
Anthony Moore comments:
Yes it would show all of the posts with the taxonomy term "Judd Apatow" and the taxonomy term "Comedy".
Francisco Javier Carazo Gil answers:
Hi Anthony,
Maybe the best option is create a page with a template (this template) and pass a parameter to it using a GET: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_query_arg.
You take the parameter and then in the template make the search.
Anthony Moore comments:
Hi Francisco,
I have read up on the add_query_arg function. Where do I add this in? My taxonomy_directors.php file?
Does this need to go before the loop, or does that not matter?
Francisco Javier Carazo Gil comments:
Anthony,
You have to add the parameter in the call to the page (i. e. an GET ?parameter=value) without using this function if you want, and then you can collect it into the template: get_query_var( 'parameter' );
John Cotton answers:
You should set up some custom rewrites and custom query vars for the urls eg
$new_rules['^movies/directors/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$'] = 'index.php?Director=$matches[1]&ex_genre=$matches[2]';
You have to have the ex_genre query var otherwise WP will get confused about which taxonomy you are looking at. Of course you could also set up
$new_rules['^movies/genre/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$'] = 'index.php?Genre=$matches[1]&ex_directors=$matches[2]';
And have it work the other way around but I think you'd get an SEO penalty for the duplicate pages (in that /movies/directors/bob/comedy would produce the same page as /movies/comedy/directors/bob).
Then in you taxonomy_directors.php file, you'd do:
global $wp_query;
if( $genre = get_query_var('ex_genre') {
// Amend query_posts to have the extra taxonomy:
$wp_query->query_vars->tax_query['relation'] = 'AND';
$wp_query->query_vars->tax_query[] = array( 'taxonomy' => 'genre', 'field' => 'slug', 'terms' => array( $genre );
}
query_posts( $wp_query->query_vars );
John Cotton comments:
PS you might have to play around a bit more with $wp_query->query_vars in case just adding the extra genre messes up the query, but if you've got a straight taxonomy_template it should work as I showed.
Anthony Moore comments:
I am guessing i put the custom rewrites in my .htaccess file. Or does this go into a function?
By default should this link work by displaying posts that have both taxonomies?
http://site.com/movies/?genre=comedy&director=bob
If it does not work when I type in that URL, is there an issue with my taxonomies set up?
I was looking at the examples in this article:
http://thereforei.am/2011/10/28/advanced-taxonomy-queries-with-pretty-urls/
John Cotton comments:
Well you need to set proper permalinks first (%category%/%postname% is my personal preference).
The rewrites could go in the .htaccess, but are much better to go in your functions.php using the generate_rewrite_rules hook (see dozens of previous questions on here for more on that or the Codex). Ditto query_vars.
By default, any taxonomy_name.php file is going to show an archive list for that taxonomy. So that's why you need to use query_posts to modify the default behaviour.
Anthony Moore comments:
I need to have my permalinks set up like so (/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/), simply because that was the way it was set up on the old website for several years.
Does that cause a problem?
John Cotton comments:
Nope.
Anthony Moore comments:
For now I will not change my permalinks as I will play around with it once I get the function working. I actually have several taxonomies that will be incorporated.
In your example code to put in taxonomy_directors.php
global $wp_query;
if( $genre = get_query_var('ex_genre') {
// Amend query_posts to have the extra taxonomy:
$wp_query->query_vars->tax_query['relation'] = 'AND';
$wp_query->query_vars->tax_query[] = array( 'taxonomy' => 'genre', 'field' => 'slug', 'terms' => array( $genre );
}
query_posts( $wp_query->query_vars );
What is ''ex_genre' ?
John Cotton comments:
<blockquote>What is ''ex_genre' ?</blockquote>
It's a custom query var to avoid WP getting confused with having two taxpnomu qvs on the same page:
function add_query_vars( $query_vars ) {
$query_vars[] = 'ex_genre';
return $query_vars;
}
add_action( 'query_vars', 'add_query_vars', 10, 1 );
John Cotton comments:
Query vars are just name/value pairs on the query string that WP uses internal when it rewrites your custom url to index.php so that it knows what page/state has been requested.
By telling WP about your own custom ones, you keep things neat and WP plays ball with all sorts of URLs.