How to filter custom content type nodes using ajax in Drupal?

Question

I'm in a situation where I think I need to create my own custom search module. What I'm trying to do is make a page with a list of all my nodes in the node type - let's call it 'Beer'. So I want to be able to filter through the beers in a fashion similar to the one you find on the Apple Trailers page ( http://trailers.apple.com/ ).

I tried using Views 2 but ran it to a few problems:

• I can't make the filter links like in the top of the trailers page (exclusive, just HD etc.)
• The search function will only search one field (Exposed field "Beer title" but I also want it to search for manufacturer and other things.

I'm aware of a couple of solutions:

• I could fix the last problem by using the Computed Field Module where I could combine the fields I want to search through. I just don't see this as a very elegant solution.
• I could make my own module and create my own database queries where I apply the relevant filters (I just don't know how).
• I could somehow use my already installed Solr module.

So the first solution - the easiest I guess but also kind of bad with duplicate content in my database.

The second solution - the best (maybe) - problem: I'm too dumb.

The third solution - Solr seems pretty cool but would I be able to present my beer nodes with just the title and a picture?

So I guess my question is. Which one of the three would you use? Or what other solutions could I potentially use (I'm confident there are things I haven't thought of :))?

Answer 1

Sounds like this could be a good use for Taxonomy not different node types. Also, Have you considered http://drupal.org/project/quicktabs ?

You could set up each "filter" as a tab that passes an argument down to a view. Then don't expose any views filters to the user.