Member Avatar for edprush

How did Dani get the "Search" link to go directly to the advanced search page?

Also does the Search field (see the purple-colored bar near the top of the page) perform the same search as on the search.php page?

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This thread is asking whether the top “Search” label goes straight to the advanced-search UI and whether the compact search box performs the same lookup. raised the question and clarified how the site was implemented; the following adds practical, evergreen guidance and a few troubleshooting pointers that complement those replies without repeating the exact template code already posted.

For better accessibility and easier debugging, prefer an HTML form that uses method="get" and an input of type search (or a clearly labelled text input). That makes the query appear in the URL so the search can be bookmarked or inspected easily in logs. If the forum software requires POST for certain operations, the visible mini-form can still submit as POST while the explicit “Advanced search” link targets the page that displays the full search options.

A couple of small, safe examples (not the same code shown earlier):

<form action="/search.php" method="get" role="search" aria-label="Forum search">
  <label for="q" class="sr-only">Search forums</label>
  <input id="q" name="q" type="search" placeholder="Search forums" />
  <button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
/* make a normal link look like plain text while preserving focus */
a.search-link { text-decoration: none; color: inherit; }
a.search-link:focus { outline: 2px solid #000; text-decoration: underline; }

Quick debugging checklist: view the page source to confirm the anchor’s href (the display page vs. the processing script), check the form’s action and method, and use the browser Network panel to see the exact request and parameters. JavaScript can also intercept submits or call a different endpoint — if behavior differs between the mini-box and the advanced UI, hidden fields or client-side scripts are likely sources. Finally, remember template caching: template edits often require a cache rebuild for changes to appear.

Member Avatar for Dani

I'm a bit confused as to what you're asking. The word "Search" is a direct link to the search.php page. I used CSS to make it not really look like a link, but it's just a standard hyperlink. The search field is in a simple form which calls the search.php page. If you are running a vBulletin board, you could put the following wherever you want:

<form action="search.php" method="post">
	 <input type="hidden" name="do" value="process" />
	 <input type="hidden" name="showposts" value="0" />
	 <input type="text" name="query" />
	 <input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>

Then, just play around with CSS to make it look the way you want :) Notice that when you do a search, a list of threads is returned. If you change the showposts attribute to 1, a list of individual posts will be returned. Your preference :)

Also, since it's just a regular ol' form - that HTML code can go anywhere ... within a vBulletin template or on a regular HTML page.

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