I have a search page where a user can type in a search box, or they can use an alphabetical list to search for the record they're looking for. Eg they click 'a' and all the records beginning with the letter 'a' appear.
I'd also like to have it so that each record has a number of tags, and I'd then like to be able to filter records according to which tags have been selected - preferably using check boxes.
For example, perhaps the tags would be colored and the records represented shoes. There would be check boxes for blue, yellow, black, brown and so on. At first all colors would be shown, but if the user clicks on brown then all but the brown shoes disappear.
I am using CakePHP
jQuery UI Autocomplete Plugin is what you are looking for.
You can try out a demo here - http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Autocomplete#demo
In the demo, they have used a static local option. But you can use a remote URL also which results a particular list based on your search term. Look at the various options.
Do give it a try and if you experience problems (I am sure you will), ask again here.
// cakephp view
echo $this->Form->checkbox("Model.color.0", array("value"=>"green"));
// cakephp controller
$filtered = $this->Model->find("all", array(
"conditions"=> array(
// ...
) + $this->data
));
//or
$this->paginate['conditions'] = array(
//...
) + $this->data;
$filtered=$this->paginate();