Add searc box to Gallery

I have completed development of an enhanced “Keyword(s) Search” and a new “Term Keyword(s) Search” capability for the [mla_gallery] shortcode. You can use either one to let users search by entering all of part of the Title for terms in your Att. Category and Att. Tag taxonomies.

If you want to try it out you can download and install the MLA Development Version from the “Developers” tab here in the repository. If you do, please let me know how it works for you.

Here is the source text for two pages you can use to test the new feature. There is a lot of HTML and parameter passing in the examples, but they are not really complicated. Each example has a form to enter keywords and parameters and a paginated [mla_gallery] to show the results.

Enhanced Keyword(s) Example

<h3>The Search Form</h3>
<form id="mla-search-form" action="." method="post">
<input id="mla-search-box" name="search-string" type="text" value="" />&nbsp;<input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="GO" />
<input name="mla_search_connector" type="radio" checked="checked" value="AND">and&nbsp;<input name="mla_search_connector" type="radio" value="OR">or
<input name="mla_search_fields[]" id="search-title" type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="title">Title&nbsp;<input name="mla_search_fields[]" id="search-name" type="checkbox" value="name">Name&nbsp;<input name="mla_search_fields[]" id="search-excerpt" type="checkbox" value="excerpt">Caption&nbsp;<input name="mla_search_fields[]" id="search-content" type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="content">Description&nbsp;<input name="mla_search_fields[]" id="terms-search" type="checkbox" value="terms">Terms
<input name="sentence" id="search-sentence" type="checkbox" value="true">sentence&nbsp;<input name="exact" id="search-name" type="checkbox" value="true">exact
<input name="debug" id="search-debug" type="checkbox" value="true">debug
</form>

<h3>The Search String Gallery</h3>

[mla_gallery post_mime_type=all mla_search_connector="{+request:mla_search_connector+}" mla_search_fields="{+request:mla_search_fields+}" sentence="{+request:sentence+}" exact="{+request:exact+}" s="{+template:({+request:search-string+}|a-bad-term)+}" mla_nolink_text="No pages to show." posts_per_page=2 mla_output="paginate_links,prev_next" mla_link_href="{+page_url+}?search-string={+request:search-string+}&mla_search_fields={+request:mla_search_fields+}&mla_search_connector={+request:mla_search_connector+}&sentence={+request:sentence+}&exact={+request:exact+}"]

[mla_gallery mla_debug="{+request:debug+}" post_mime_type=all mla_search_connector="{+request:mla_search_connector+}" mla_search_fields="{+request:mla_search_fields+}" sentence="{+request:sentence+}" exact="{+request:exact+}" s="{+template:({+request:search-string+}|a-bad-term)+}" mla_nolink_text="Enter a search value above to display gallery." posts_per_page=2]

Term Keyword(s) Search Example

<h3>The Terms Search Form</h3>
<form id="mla-search-form" action="." method="post">
<input name="mla_terms_phrases" id="mla-terms-phrases" type="text" value="">&nbsp;<input name="mla_terms_search" class="button" id="mla-terms-search-submit" type="submit" value="Search">
<input name="mla_phrase_connector" id="mla-terms-search-radio-phrases-and" type="radio" checked="checked" value="AND">All phrases&nbsp;<input name="mla_phrase_connector" id="mla-terms-search-radio-phrases-or" type="radio" value="OR">Any phrase
<input name="mla_term_connector" id="mla-terms-search-radio-terms-and" type="radio" value="AND">All terms&nbsp;<input name="mla_term_connector" id="mla-terms-search-radio-terms-or" type="radio" checked="checked" value="OR">Any term
<input name="mla_terms_taxonomies[]" type="checkbox" value="category">&nbsp;Categories
<input name="mla_terms_taxonomies[]" type="checkbox" value="post_tag">&nbsp;Tags
<input name="mla_terms_taxonomies[]" type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="attachment_category">&nbsp;Att. Categories
<input name="mla_terms_taxonomies[]" type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="attachment_tag">&nbsp;Att. Tags
<input name="mla_debug" id="search-debug" type="checkbox" value="true">debug
</form>
<h3>The Terms Search Gallery</h3>
[mla_gallery post_mime_type=all mla_terms_phrases="{+template:({+request:mla_terms_phrases+}|a-bad-term)+}" mla_phrase_connector="{+request:mla_phrase_connector+}" mla_term_connector="{+request:mla_term_connector+}" mla_terms_taxonomies="{+request:mla_terms_taxonomies+}" mla_nolink_text="No pages to show." posts_per_page=2 mla_output="paginate_links,prev_next" mla_link_href="{+page_url+}?mla_terms_phrases={+request:mla_terms_phrases,url+}&mla_phrase_connector={+request:mla_phrase_connector,url+}&mla_term_connector={+request:mla_term_connector,url+}&mla_terms_taxonomies={+request:mla_terms_taxonomies,url+}"]

[mla_gallery mla_debug="{+request:mla_debug+}" post_mime_type=all mla_terms_phrases="{+template:({+request:mla_terms_phrases+}|a-bad-term)+}" mla_phrase_connector="{+request:mla_phrase_connector+}" mla_term_connector="{+request:mla_term_connector+}" mla_terms_taxonomies="{+request:mla_terms_taxonomies+}" mla_nolink_text="Enter a search value above to display gallery." posts_per_page=2]

Thank you for your update; I am happy to hear that the new keyword/term search functions are working for you.

In the current MLA version (and the Development Version) there is no shortcode or [mla_tag_cloud] parameter that will generate a dropdown or other control that represents the hierarchy for a taxonomy such as Categories or Att. Categories. I did some preliminary work on one, but the WordPress developers are working on some enhancements that will significantly change the way these functions are handled and I am waiting to see what they do.

In the interim, I would be happy to work with you on a custom solution for your application. Here is an earlier topic along similar lines:

Show main category with list inside

That solution uses the “Collapse-O-Matic” plugin, but you could so something similar with a dropdown control. The basic idea of creating WordPress templates can be adapted in many ways.

Another, somewhat simpler approach would be to develop a small custom plugin that implements a shortcode you can use to generate the control. Would that be a good solution for your application?

If you would like to proceed, give me your contact information so I can send you a test version of the custom plugin. When we’re finished I will post the results here for everyone to see. You can use the Contact Us page at our web site:

Fair Trade Judaica/Contact Us

Thanks for an interesting question. I look forward to working with you on a solution that fits your application.

So, @zepzilia, let’s proceed to your question about the Spanish version of your site. I am not quite sure what you mean by “the Spanish version of the website, with Spanish terms, in another WP directory but in the same domain“. Do you really mean two copies of the software, with separate wp-config.php files and so forth? If so, it sounds risky.

I have installed separate WordPress sites in different subdomains without any trouble, e.g., esp.enriquementindes.com or something similar. However, if you want a multi-language site you should investigate WordPress plugins like WPML and Polylang. I have made both of these work well with MLA.

In any case, I can give you some hints about the “interference” you are seeing. Both of the symptoms you are having are related to the use of arguments like ?page_id=15 to navigate the site.

First, the “GO” button issue. The HTML for your search form looks like this:

<form id="mla-search-form" action="." method="post"><input name="search-string" id="mla-search-box" type="text" value=""><br>
<input name="submit" id="submit" type="submit" value="GO"></form>

The action="." parameter links back to the current page when the “GO” button is clicked, but it only uses the href portion of the URL to do so. In this case, the href portion of the URL is http://www.enriquemetinides.com/esp/, and you are using a query argument, ?page_id=15 to get to the right WordPress page. The query argument is not part of the “.” so you get the home page.

You can try changing the action parameter to the explicit, complete URL as follows:

action="http://www.enriquemetinides.com/esp/?page_id=15"

That will work for the specific WordPress page you have placed the form on.

Second, the term cloud issue. This is a similar problem; here is one of your term links:

http://www.enriquemetinides.com/esp/?page_id=15?term_slug=1940

You can see that the ?page_id=15 query argument is followed by ?term_slug=1940, and the second “?” is invalid HTML. If you can find the ?term_slug= parameter and change it to &term_slug= you should have a better result.

The above suggestions will fix your immediate issues, but I have serious doubts about your overall strategy (as I understand it). If you want a site that will work gracefully in two or more languages you would be well served by learning and using one of the “multi-lingual” plugin solutions for WordPress.

I had a look at your /esp/ page and I can see the problem you report. It is, as you suspect, the encoding of the term_slug argument in the URL. For example, the third page URL contains these arguments:

?page_id=15%3Fterm_slug%3Dblanco-y-negro&mla_paginate_current=3

but it should look like this:

?page_id=15&term_slug=blanco-y-negro&mla_paginate_current=3

There are two problems. First, you have somehow encoded the punctuation before and inside the term_slug argument; %3F and %3D are interpreted as data characters, not delimiters. Second, %3F is the code for the question mark, not the ampersand ( that would be %38).

You need to find whatever code is generating %3Fterm_slug%3D and change it to generate &term_slug=.

If the code is in a WordPress Post or Page, make sure you are using the “Text” tab of the editor, not the “Visual” tab.

I hope that solved your immediate problem. Let me know what you find.

Thanks for posting the source of your [mla_tag_cloud] shortcodes. They look fine, and I now realize that my earlier post was not very clear.

The problem is not related to the [mla_tag_cloud] shortcodes. You must have another [mla_gallery] shortcode on the page that is generating the pagination links (for example, “1 2 3 … 58 Next »“) that appear below the cloud. It is the syntax in these pagination links that is failing.

Can you have a close look at the pagination shortcode and make sure it is correct? If it looks good to you, please post it here so I can try the same thing on my test site.