In a PHP based url, can a search term use a wildcard?

[iNow]

I've got a report function in our local training system, where we enter the manager ID of a group, then the course code. This will pull who in that managers group has completed that course code and who has not.

 

I'm trying to find a way to replace putting a (or multiple) specific course code (or codes) with a "begins with" logic that will pull all course codes beginning with a certain term.

 

However, I've messed around a bit with wildcards (like * and %), but either the wildcards don't work, or my syntax is wrong.

 

 

 

An example of an actual report url for a specific manager and a specific course is as follows:

 

http: //OurTrainingSite/reports/mgr_drill_multi.php?mgrid=IDgoesHere&QS_crse_codes=ExactCourseCode

 

 

What I want is a way to do something similar, but with "QS_crse_codes" begins with "CodePrefix."

 

Any ideas of syntax to try?

 

 

 

If I can't get it to work this way, I'll just ask our DEV team to create a new report type with this logic, but my hope is that I can leverage existing functionality without the need for a production change request. My skills are limited, and this may not even be possible, but I figured it could not hurt to ask.

 

Any and all ideas are welcome. Cheers.

[Klaynos]

without access to the code you'll never know.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Unless they wrote the code to handle it, I don't think you can do it.

[iNow]

Cool. I sort of figured that, and it makes sense. I can pull the data myself from the database on the backend, but I will need to get a new end-user report created to do what I described above.

 

 

Thanks guys.

[mooeypoo]

iNow, the way to do it is set up a condition in the code itself. For instance:

 

URL:

http://www.whatever.com?search=term&type=1

 

Code:

<?php
switch ($_GET["type"]) 
{
    case 1: //wildcard both sides:
         $sTerm = '%' . $_GET['term'] . '%';
         break;
    case 2: //wildcard before only:
         $sTerm = '%' . $_GET['term'];
         break;
    case 3: //wildcard after only:
         $sTerm = $_GET['term'] . '%';
         break;
    default:
    case 4: //no wildcard:
         $sTerm = $_GET['term'];
         break;
}

//do whatever in the SQL search:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE field=".$sTerm;

?>

 

You can play with the search terms like that. If your intention is to ALWAYS add a wildcard, then just tell the code to automatically add it (instead of switching) and use the new variable for the search.

 

 

Hope that helps

 

~moo

[iNow]

Nice. I'll give that a whirl after the weekend. Thanks, moo!

[mooeypoo]

Nice. I'll give that a whirl after the weekend. Thanks, moo!

 

No problems

 

I just noticed that I didn't FULLY answer it though.. you should probably avoid the switch, since you want to use only "before" thing, but I guess you can figure it out by only using the third case.

 

also, don't forget to use some security anti-SQL injection in there, because this is still a GET command. So, to summarize, your code should look something like this:

 

$baseTerm = "%" . [color=red]mysql_real_escape_string([color=Black]$_GET["term"][/color])[/color];
$sql="SELECT * FROM table WHERE field LIKE '".$baseTerm."'";

// etc

 

 

Don't forget the mysql_real_escape_string thing, it's VERY important if you're dealing with direct-field injections to the SQL database

 

g'luck