Drupal: Create custom search

Question

I'm trying to create a custom search but getting stuck. What I want is to have a dropdownbox so the user can choose where to search in. These options can mean 1 or more content types.

So if he chooses options A, then the search will look in node-type P,Q,R. But he may not give those results, but only the uid's which will be then themed to gather specific data for that user.

To make it a little bit clearer, Suppose I want to llok for people. The what I'm searching in is 2 content profile types. But ofcourse you dont want to display those as a result, but a nice picture of the user and some data.

I started with creating a form with a textfield and the dropdown box. Then, in the submit handler, i created the keys and redirected to another pages with those keys as a tail. This page has been defined in the menu hook, just like how search does it.

After that I want to call hook_view to do the actual search by calling node_search, and give back the results.

Unfortunately, it goes wrong. When i click the Search button, it gives me a 404.

But am I on the right track? Is this the way to create a custom search?

Thx for your help.

Here's the code for some clarity:

<?php
// $Id$

/*
 * @file
 * Searches on Project, Person, Portfolio or Group.
 */

/**
 * returns an array of menu items
 * @return array of menu items
 */
function vm_search_menu() {

  $subjects = _vm_search_get_subjects();
  foreach ($subjects as $name => $description) {
    $items['zoek/'. $name .'/%menu_tail'] = array(
      'page callback' => 'vm_search_view',
      'page arguments' => array($name),
      'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK,
    );
  }
  return $items;
}


/**
 * create a block to put the form into.
 * @param $op
 * @param $delta
 * @param $edit
 * @return mixed
 */
function vm_search_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
  switch ($op) {
    case 'list':
      $blocks[0]['info'] = t('Algemene zoek');
      return $blocks;
    case 'view':
        if (0 == $delta) {
          $block['subject'] = t('');
          $block['content'] = drupal_get_form('vm_search_general_form');
        }
      return $block;
    }
}

/**
  * Define the form.
  */
function vm_search_general_form() {
  $subjects = _vm_search_get_subjects();
  foreach ($subjects as $key => $subject) {
    $options[$key] = $subject['desc'];
  }

    $form['subjects'] = array(
     '#type' => 'select',
    '#options' => $options,
    '#required' => TRUE,
    );
  $form['keys'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#required' => TRUE,
  );
   $form['submit'] = array(
      '#type' => 'submit',
      '#value' => t('Zoek'),
   );
   return $form;
}


function vm_search_general_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
  $subjects = _vm_search_get_subjects();
  $keys = $form_state['values']['keys']; //the search keys
  //the content types to search in
  $keys .= ' type:' . implode(',', $subjects[$form_state['values']['subjects']]['types']);



  //redirect to the page, where vm_search_view will handle the actual search
  $form_state['redirect'] = 'zoek/'. $form_state['values']['subjects'] .'/'. $keys;
}


/**
 * Menu callback; presents the search results.
 */
function vm_search_view($type = 'node') {
  // Search form submits with POST but redirects to GET. This way we can keep
  // the search query URL clean as a whistle:
  // search/type/keyword+keyword
  if (!isset($_POST['form_id'])) {
    if ($type == '') {
      // Note: search/node can not be a default tab because it would take on the
      // path of its parent (search). It would prevent remembering keywords when
      // switching tabs. This is why we drupal_goto to it from the parent instead.
      drupal_goto($front_page);
    }

    $keys = search_get_keys();
    // Only perform search if there is non-whitespace search term:
    $results = '';
    if (trim($keys)) {
      // Log the search keys:
      watchdog('vm_search', '%keys (@type).', array('%keys' => $keys, '@type' => $type));

      // Collect the search results:
      $results = node_search('search', $type);

      if ($results) {
        $results = theme('box', t('Zoek resultaten'), $results);
      }
      else {
        $results = theme('box', t('Je zoek heeft geen resultaten opgeleverd.'));
      }
    }
  }
  return $results;
}


/**
 * returns array where to look for
 * @return array
 */
function _vm_search_get_subjects() {
  $subjects['opdracht'] =
    array('desc' => t('Opdracht'),
          'types' => array('project')
          );
  $subjects['persoon'] =
     array('desc' => t('Persoon'),
          'types' => array('types_specialisatie', 'smaak_en_interesses')
          );
  $subjects['groep'] =
    array('desc' => t('Groep'),
        'types' => array('Villamedia_groep')
        );
  $subjects['portfolio'] =
    array('desc' => t('Portfolio'),
          'types' => array('artikel')
          );
   return $subjects;
}

Answer 1

To be honest, I haven't seen many people implement hook_search. Most just use Views, or, for advanced things, something like Faceted Search.

Did you consider using either for your current project? Why didn't it work?