Redirect to Post List by Taxonomy on User Selection of Taxonomy Dropdown?

Hi @ntechi:

Here’s a function I wrote which I named the_taxonomy_dropdown() to give you what I think you are looking for.

function the_taxonomy_dropdown($taxonomy) {
  $id = "{$taxonomy}-dropdown";
  $js =<<<SCRIPT
<script type="text/javascript">
 jQuery(document).ready(function($){
  $("select#{$id}").change(function(){
    window.location.href = $(this).val();
  });
 });
</script>
SCRIPT;
  echo $js;
  $terms = get_terms($taxonomy);
  echo "<select name=\"{$id}\" id=\"{$id}\">";
  foreach($terms as $term) {
    echo '<option value="';
    echo get_term_link(intval($term->term_id),$taxonomy);
    echo '">' . "{$term->name}</option>";
  }
  echo "</select>";
}

You can put the_taxonomy_dropdown() in your theme’s functions.php file and call it from one of your theme’s template files like so:

<?php the_taxonomy_dropdown('name of taxonomy'); ?>

Notice I didn’t use wp_dropdown_categories() because it sets the <option>‘s values to term_id instead of the term’s permalink. You need the permalink in order to set the window.location.href on the client end. Had we used wp_dropdown_categories() it have would added more complexity; it would have required issuing an HTTP GET request with term_id to a page on the server that would then redirect to the term’s permalink. But it’s much easier to just build the HTML <select> ourselves as I did (and it’s more peformant, since it doesn’t take an extra HTTP request.)

Of course, be sure to remember wp_enqueue_script() jQuery in an 'init' hook, also in your theme’s functions.php file:

add_action('init','jquery_init');
function jquery_init() {
  wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
}

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