Ajax Search with select dropdown filters CakePhp

Question 1

As i Searched Through tutorials and Cakephp Cook Book. The best uproach i reached is this:

First: The thing that was preventing the aJax to do the Search was the Security Component. Since Forms in cakephp generate a unique token. Each time it is submited should be a different one so since i was using ajax it was generating error. so i disabled

public function beforeFilter() {    
     parent::beforeFilter();
        // Controller spesific beforeFilter
        $this->Auth->allow('search');
         if ($this->action == 'search') {
            $this->Security->validatePost = false;
            $this->Security->csrfCheck = false;

            if (!$this->RequestHandler->isAjax()) {
                $this->Security->blackHole($this, 'You are not authorized to process this request!');
                $this->redirect(null, 401, true);
            } 
        }
    }

Then i used the query(); method of cakephp since my query was complex and it used Joins and Conditions as well. So the search() function is as follow.

app/Controllers/ControllerName

/**
 * aJax search method
 *
 * @return void
 */
    public function search() {
    $this->autoRender = false;
        if ($this->request->is('post')) {
            if(!empty($this->data)){
                if ($this->request->is('ajax')) {

          /* Query for the Typology*/
          $queryTypologies  =" SELECT *";
          $queryTypologies .=" FROM typologies AS Typology";
          $queryTypologies .=" LEFT JOIN items as Item";
          $queryTypologies .=" ON Item.id = Typology.item_id";
          $queryTypologies .=" WHERE Item.published=1 AND Typology.published=1";          

        if (isset($this->data['Typology']['typology_categories']) && !empty($this->data['Typology']['typology_categories']) && $this->data['Typology']['typology_categories']!='') {
           $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.typology_category_id ='".$this->request->data['Typology']['typology_categories']."'";
        }
        if (trim($this->data['Typology']['item_locations'])!='' && !empty($this->data['Typology']['item_locations']) && $this->request->data['Typology']['item_locations']!='') {
            $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.item_id=(SELECT id FROM items AS Item WHERE Item.item_location_id='".$this->request->data['Typology']['item_locations']."' LIMIT 1)";
        }
        if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price'])!='' && !empty($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) && $this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']!='') {

            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 1) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price <= 1000";                          
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 2) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price BETWEEN 1001 AND 5000";                            
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 3) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price BETWEEN 5001 AND 50000";                           
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 4) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price BETWEEN 50001 AND 100000";                         
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 5) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price BETWEEN 100001 AND 500000";                            
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 6) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price BETWEEN 500001 AND 1000000";                           
            }
            if (trim($this->request->data['Typology']['typology_price']) == 7) {    
                $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.price > 1000000";                            
            }
        }
        if (trim($this->data['Typology']['typology_conditions'])!='' && !empty($this->data['Typology']['typology_conditions']) && $this->data['Typology']['typology_conditions']!='') {
            $queryTypologies .= " AND Typology.typology_condition_id='".$this->request->data['Typology']['typology_conditions']."'";    
        }
        $queryTypologies .=" ORDER BY Typology.id DESC";

                    $typologies = $this->Typology->query($queryTypologies);    
                    $this->set('typologies', $typologies);
                    /* debug($this->data); // This is used for development purposes ONLY!  */

                    if($this->RequestHandler->isAjax()){                        
                        $this->render('search', 'ajax');    
                    }               
                }
            }

        }
    }

And in the View i used this Ajax:

<!-- HERE IS THE SEARCH FILTER -->
 <script type="text/javascript" >
 //<![CDATA[
    $(document).ready(function () {
        $('.select_filter').bind('change keyup input',function(event) {
            $('html,body').animate({ scrollTop: $("#work").offset().top}, "slow");
            var formData = $('#search_form').serialize(); 
            $.ajax({
                async:true, 
                data: formData, // You will get all the select data..
                dataType:'html',
                success:function(data){
                    $("#projects").html(data);
                },
                type: 'POST',
                url:'<?php echo Router::Url(array('controller' => 'typologies','admin' => false, 'action' => 'search'), true); ?>'
            });
            event.preventDefault();
            return false;
        });
    });
//]]>
 </script>

This worked as charm for me. Feel free to use it. i hope it would be handy for anyone.

Question 2

The find I suppose you can do it normally, as you did it on the index() page. Seems that you have trouble with returning the ajax response to the client.

For this, you can use json views, so you can do the search on the controller (in search() method) and the render in the view, and returning it as an ajax response, instead of all on the same place as you have it in your native PHP code.

Please take a look at this link for how to use it: http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/views/json-and-xml-views.html#using-a-data-view-with-view-files

Question 3

public function beforeFilter() {    
 parent::beforeFilter();
    // Controller spesific beforeFilter
    $this->Auth->allow('search');
     if ($this->action == 'search') {
        $this->Security->validatePost = false;
        $this->Security->csrfCheck = false;

        if (!$this->RequestHandler->isAjax()) {
            $this->Security->blackHole($this, 'You are not authorized to process this request!');
            $this->redirect(null, 401, true);
        } 
    }
}

function is helpful for beginer in code with CakePHP 2, it's have got a parent function with backgroud runtime.