Google Search API Form Receipt Issue

[msaz87]

Hey all,

 

I'm pretty sure this is a very easy solution, I've just been staring at it too long and am probably missing the cause.

 

I'm using Google's site search API and using their "Results Only" setup, so I design my own search box, then just drop their code into the results page and specify the variable the query is being passed as. So here's my search box:

 

				<form method="post" action="/search-results/?q=">    	
<input id="searchTxt" type="text" maxlength="128" name="q" size="15" value="Search" onfocus="if (this.value == &#039;Search&#039;) {this.value = &#039;&#039;;}" onblur="if (this.value == &#039;&#039;) {this.value = &#039;Search&#039;;}" />
				<input type="image" name="op" value="Search" src="/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/search-button-magnifier.png" />

 

And the results code via Google:

<div id="cse" style="width: 100%;">Loading</div>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
  function parseQueryFromUrl () {
    var queryParamName = "q";
    var search = window.location.search.substr(1);
    var parts = search.split('&');
    for (var i = 0; i < parts.length; i++) {
      var keyvaluepair = parts[i].split('=');
      if (decodeURIComponent(keyvaluepair[0]) == queryParamName) {
        return decodeURIComponent(keyvaluepair[1].replace(/\+/g, ' '));
      }
    }
    return '';
  }
  google.load('search', '1', {language : 'en'});
  google.setOnLoadCallback(function() {
    var customSearchControl = new google.search.CustomSearchControl('XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX');
    customSearchControl.setResultSetSize(google.search.Search.FILTERED_CSE_RESULTSET);
    var options = new google.search.DrawOptions();
    options.enableSearchResultsOnly();     
    customSearchControl.draw('cse', options);
    var queryFromUrl = parseQueryFromUrl();
    if (queryFromUrl) {
      customSearchControl.execute(queryFromUrl);
    }
  }, true);
</script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.google.com/cse/style/look/default.css" type="text/css" /> 

 

But nothing seemingly the query is not sent with the user to the results page. Manually adding "?q=test" shows the results work. Am I missing something here? I'm using Wordpress on this site, so not sure if the permalink setup is screwing with it at all.

 

Thanks for the help

[WebStyles]

if you want the value of "q" to be present in the query string, your form should use method="get" instead of method="post".

 

change the form line from this

<form method="post" action="/search-results/?q=">

to this

<form method="get" action="/search-results/">

and try again. ?q= will be automatically added to the url, so I removed it from the action="" parameter.

[msaz87]

That was what was wrong... only I fixed it in a much more difficult way. I realized the problem was that the query had to be actually in the URL, so I had the form post to a simple redirect page that then rebuilt the search link with the query in it.

 

The whole _GET, _POST, _REQUEST thing is still a little foreign to me, but your solution definitely makes sense and seems to be the way to go. Thanks!