OK here’s an attempt, however I don’t know the exact structure of your categories taxonomy so it may need some slight tweaking. I’ve updated the HTML of your form so it uses the values selected by the user, then there’s a block of PHP code which runs a custom WP_Query to display the relevant posts (which you can edit to display how you like, currently it just returns an unordered list of posts)
HTML Form
<!-- THE HTML FOR THE FORM -->
<form action="" method="post">
<div class="customsearchul">
<div id="searchArea">
<ul>
<?php // Get the values from $_POST for area
if($_POST['area']) { $a=$_POST['area'];} else { $a="";} ?>
<li><h4>Area:</h4></li>
<li>All of London<input type="radio" name="area" value="london" <?php if ($a == 'london' || ! isset($_POST['area']) ) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>North<input type="radio" name="area" value="north" <?php if ($a == 'north' ) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /> </li>
<li>East<input type="radio" name="area" value="east" <?php if ($a == 'east') { echo 'checked'; } ?> /> </li>
<li>South<input type="radio" name="area" value="south" <?php if ($a == 'south') { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>West<input type="radio" name="area" value="west" <?php if ($a == 'west') { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Central<input type="radio" name="area" value="central" <?php if ($a == 'central') { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="customsearchul">
<div id="searchMusic">
<ul>
<?php // Get the values from $_POST for music
if($_POST['music']) { $m=$_POST['music'];} else { $m[]='';} ?>
<li><h4>Music:</h4></li>
<li>House<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="house" <?php if (in_array('house', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Techno<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="techno" <?php if (in_array('techno', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Trance<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="trance" <?php if (in_array('trance', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Electronica<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="electronica" <?php if (in_array('electronica', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Drum and Bass<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="drum-and-bass" <?php if (in_array('drum-and-bass', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Garage<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="garage" <?php if (in_array('garage', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Dubstep<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="dubstep" <?php if (in_array('dubstep', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Trap<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="trap" <?php if (in_array('trap', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Hip-Hop<input type="checkbox" id="music" name="music[]" value="hiphop" <?php if (in_array('hiphop', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>R'n'B<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="rnb" <?php if (in_array('rnb', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Rock<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="rock" <?php if (in_array('rock', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Indie<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="indie" <?php if (in_array('indie', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Reggae<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="reggae" <?php if (in_array('reggae', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Retro 80's/90's<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="retro" <?php if (in_array('retro', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Party Bangers<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="party-bangers" <?php if (in_array('party-bangers', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Chart Hits<input type="checkbox" name="music[]" value="chart-hits" <?php if (in_array('chart-hits', $m)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="customsearchul">
<div id="searchType">
<ul>
<?php // Get the values from $_POST for music
if($_POST['occasion']) { $o=$_POST['occasion'];} else { $o[]='';} ?>
<li><h4>Search Type:</h4></li>
<!--<li>Everything<input type="checkbox" name="occasion[]" value="debauchery" /></li> -->
<li>Nightclubs<input type="checkbox" name="occasion[]" id="nightclub" value="nightclub" <?php if (in_array('nightclub', $o)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Events & Tickets<input type="checkbox" name="occasion[]" value="club-guide" <?php if (in_array('club-guide', $o)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /> </li>
<li>Live Venues<input type="checkbox" name="occasion[]" value="festivals" <?php if (in_array('festivals', $o)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
<li>Artist Interviews<input type="checkbox" name="occasion[]" value="artist" <?php if (in_array('artist', $o)) { echo 'checked'; } ?> /></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<input class="searchbutton" type="submit" value="Search" id="performsearch"/>
</form>
PHP Code (WP_Query)
<?php
// Get the values from $_POST
$a = ($_POST['area']);
$m = ($_POST['music']);
$o = ($_POST['occasion']);
// Change the ID of the area category
$a_tmp = get_category_by_slug( $a );
$a_catID[] = $a_tmp->term_id;
// Get the ID of each music category
// Do some conditional checks to make sure
// that we're correctly indexing an array
// and that output is an array for the later
// use with array_merge()
if ( is_array($m) ) {
// If we already have an array it means
// multiple checkboxes have been selected
foreach( $m as $m_cat ){
$m_tmp = get_category_by_slug( $m_cat );
$m_catIDs[] = $m_tmp->term_id;
}
} else {
// If we don't have an array then
// only one checkbox has been
// selected
$m_tmp = get_category_by_slug( $m );
$m_catIDs[] = $m_tmp->term_id;
}
// Get the ID of each occasion category
// with the checking as described above
if ( is_array($o) ) {
foreach( $o as $o_cat ){
$o_tmp = get_category_by_slug( $o_cat );
$o_catIDs[] = $o_tmp->term_id;
}
} else {
$o_tmp = get_category_by_slug( $o );
$o_catIDs[] = $o_tmp->term_id;
}
// Concatenate the arrays
$cat_IDs = array_merge($a_catID,$m_catIDs,$o_catIDs);
// Build the WP_Query arguments
$query_args =
array (
'post_type' => 'post',
'post_status' => 'publish',
//'category__and' => $cat_IDs
'tax_query' => array(
array(
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'field' => 'term_id',
'operator' => 'AND',
'terms' => $cat_IDs
),
)
);//end $query_args;
$the_query = new WP_Query($query_args);
// The Loop to echo posts
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
// if we have posts, echo opening <ul>
echo '<ul>';
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
// while we have posts, echo the title in an <li>
$the_query->the_post();
echo '<li>' . get_the_title() . '</li>';
}
// echo the closing <ul>
echo '</ul>';
} else {
// no posts found
echo 'Nothing found.';
} wp_reset_postdata(); /* Restore original Post Data */
?>
A few pointers:
- You’ll need to double check the taxonomy setup and ensure that the calls to
get_category_by_slugis being passed the category’s slug - Probably change the HTML outputted from the loop so it’s more than a
<ul>