Magento SEARCH how do I achieve this?

Question

this is my code

<form id="search_mini_form" action="<?echo $this->getUrl('catalogsearch/advanced/result') ?>" method="get">
    <div class="form-search">

            <select name="category" id="category_search_field">

    <option  >All Categories</option>
    <?php echo $categoryOptions ?>
</select>
    <label for="search"><?php echo $this->__('Search:') ?></label>
        <input id="search" type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $this->helper('catalogsearch')->getEscapedQueryText() ?>" class="input-text" />
       <input id="description" class="input-text" value = "<?php $_GET['name'] ?>" type="hidden"   title="Description"   name="description"/>
       <input type="hidden"   class="input-text " value = "<?php $_GET['name'] ?>" title="Short Description"   id="short_description" name="short_description"/>
       <input type="hidden"   class="input-text " value = "<?php $_GET['name'] ?>" title="Artist First Name"   id="artist_first_name" name="artist_first_name"/>
        <input type="hidden"   class="input-text "  value = "<?php $_GET['name'] ?>" title="Artist Last Name"   id="artist_last_name" name="artist_last_name"/>
        <button type="submit" title="<?php echo $this->__('Search') ?>" class="button"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Search') ?></span></span></button>

what I tried is to get the value of name field into rest of the hidden fields while submitting the form but when I submit the form the form gets re-directed and the values are passed as value "" all I need to do is

1. give the option to search in a particular category with the particular attribute
2. what value should I assign that when the user selects default option it searched in all category or attributes
3. how do I make this search works so that input from search box search in all desired attribute, not just the name

Answer 1

The value probably stays empty because you aren't actually printing the value into the HTML. Your snippet shows <?php $_GET['name'] ?> while it should be <?php echo $_GET['name'] ?>. Mind the echo statement.

What is far more important, it's not secure to echo get/post variables directly into your HTML. I could inject all kinds of malicious javascript into your HTML. I think it's good to read about XSS on the folowing page: https://www.golemtechnologies.com/articles/prevent-xss#how-to-perform-XSS

It's very important to always escape your user data before printing it on the page or using it as a parameter in a database query. This to prevent vulnerabilities.