I would like to implement a Custom Search Plugin for Joomla 3.5.1. I am new to Joomla and still busy getting my feet together.
I recently implemented a plugin that adds custom/extra fields (5 fields, free text inputs) to an article in Joomla 3.5.1. I followed their tutorial on how to get this right and so far so good. This plugin saves the extra/custom fields in the #__user_profiles table as per their tutorial. I could obviously save it to a different table but since I am learning, I kept it simple. This plugin works perfectly and I can capture the extra fields and saves successfully and the data is saved along with the article id being edited/created.
My next task is to create another site/front-end "search" (or smart search) plugin. This plugin must group the 4 field's values and provide them to the user in the front-end as selects/dropdowns.
Is there someone that can give me a lead on how I can archive this. Must I implement it as a search or smart search plugin? Is it even possible to archive what I am trying to archive?
This search plugin will only appear on one page but that I know I can config correctly once I've a plugin. Once user searches, the system must post back the selected options and I will search the "#__user_profiles" for any matching profile_key vs profile_value and collect all user_id (article_id) and get these articles from contents table and return this list of articles to the front-end as search results. Anyone can help me into the right direction?
I tried their tutorial of creating a search plugin but I seem lost, mostly I don't know how to dynamically provide my selects/dropdowns with that info saved in the #__user_profiles table.
Please assist in anyway possible...