In my project i have implement search option. Where we user should have to capability to search based on four fields namely "Zip, Street, City and State". But none of these fields are mandatory.
I am confused with what conditions should i place in find(). So please help me.
I'm assuming that you're having trouble because the form fields are optional, and you're not sure how to build the conditions for your find. Here's a simple way:
$conditions = array();
if (!empty($this->data['User']['zip'])) {
$conditions[] = array('User.zip' => $this->data['User']['zip']);
}
if (!empty($this->data['User']['street'])) {
$conditions[] = array("User.street LIKE '%{$this->data['User']['street']}%'");
}
... etc
Finally, you can append the conditions either strictly:
$this->User->find('all', array('conditions' => $conditions));
Or, loosely:
$this->User->find('all', array('conditions' => array('or' => $conditions)));
The second form places the OR operand between your WHERE conditions so that it returns any particular match. Start off here and increase the complexity of the search slowly.
You will have to be more specific on what the problem is. If it's just putting the conditions, then basically try something like this:
<?php
$results = $this->Model->find('all', array(
'conditions' => array(
'Model.field' => '%'.$this->data['Model']['some_search_field'].'%',
'Model.field2' => '%'.$this->data['Model']['some_search_field2'].'%')
));
?>
This is the correct way to handle a search in CakePHP, or any web application for that matter: http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/calin/2008/09/18/search-feature-to-cakephp-blog-example.
It involves creating a Search Index, which essentially means that it rolls all of the fields of each record in a table into a single string, which makes it much easier to search. Follow the above tutorial to optimize searching on your site.
