CP 3.x - Refine Results - City/Category selections (Detached from Search Bar)
I just witnessed a user struggling with the Refine results because their initial search was based on a category they selected in the main search bar yet they were trying to find alternative results.
Came on here looking for a solution, found this
thread by Populo only he was adressing the Vantage theme.
Why Refine Results should have it's own Category/City selection:
The Search box is located in the top header of the pages, when we do a search, we get the results and the Refine Results widget - Good so far.
The problem is, when using the Refine Results widget in the sidebar, the "untrained" user forgets that they are refining a search based on the initial city/category they chose through the main Search Bar (no longer visible in the view port), so no matter what they search for, they are limited to the initial city/category selection, what's worst is that
even if they scroll up to change the Category or City in the Search Bar, then try going back to hit the Refine button expecting the results will be based on the newly selected options, they still get the same results because the Refine Results functionality depends on the Search bar and the
Search bar reverts back to the original selections.
Suggestions:
A. Assign a standalone Refine Results page or an Advanced Search page that is not necessarily depending on the global main search bar in the Header.
B. Display a "reminder" to the user that they are searching under the selected Category/City and allow them to switch Categories/Cities using either a drop-down or a radio select button associated to Categories/Cities.
[BONUS]
Include the Meta tags search field in the Refine Results (Same one found in the Search bar)
I'm open to hire a Certified partner to do this mod, if possible, yet this will end up being requested by all other users, so what's the point? Needless to say that some of those partners are not even responsive to their own plugins support.
I'm also open to combine this request with other users that are looking for the same results and share the fees to develop this modification.
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