Multi drop down list

[flashy275]

1.3.9d
Local site only at present

Hi all,

I am trying to to create a drop down list, i've searched the forum but can only find alpha sorter questions.

I have at present created several search boxes which would help customers find products they are looking for quickly, it's based on "music" & "the book store" add on, which strangly, I cannot get working on my system, I've just looked at the demo's linked from this site?

So for simplicity, say the site sells cars, I can use my search boxes to find
Manufactures (ford, GM , Ferrari ect)
Type of car (saloon, estate, convertable, ect)
Engine size
Colour
& so on

But if I have 1000's of cars instock, I would still have to trawl through 100's of listings in each search.
I don't want to click the header to sort by "price" "Description" "colour" ect, which is standard in Zen cart, what I actually want to do is refine the search.
So if I click "ford" all my listings for ford appear BUT then I want to refine my search by having drop downs for "colour" "engine size" ect, NOT to sort them but select the "red"cars from the ford section & drop all the others.

What I have looked at so far:

If I select manufactures, I retieve all my listings for said manufacturer BUT I also have another drop down to "select by category" This is the fuction I have been working with but without success.

The ideal solution would be

1st drop menu - list car types (Saloon, estate & convertable ect)
The selection made would then populate the
2nd drop down box (Ford, GM, Ferrari ect)

It's the population of the second & third drop downs which appear to be the holy grail.

So my quetions are:

Has anyone actually achieved this or similar?
Is it possible, commercially or otherwise?

If this is possible commercially, who would write such a script?

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it will make the "quest" clear.

TIA

[flashy275]

Just to note at my previous post:

"If I select manufactures, I retieve all my listings for said manufacturer BUT I also have another drop down to "select by category" This is the fuction I have been working with but without success"

The category define on a manufacturers search works fine

What I mean is, pulling the code used in this second filter search to create multi drop down boxes

[byoriginaldesign]

I've been searching for this answer for a while, and it is possible, but with custom programming. I am currently trying to figure it out using code from a current mod, but so far have not gotten anywhere.

Category Select (dropdown) Sidebox v1.4
Support thread: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62197

In that thread (page 8) someone asks almost the same question as you and you should take a look at their site. After asking him, they've spent about $5,000 on custom programming to do what you see there.

I'm looking to do it a cheaper way, so if I get anywhere with it, I'll let you know. If you happen to find the answer, I'd love to hear it...

[byoriginaldesign]

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160761 is the thread I'm trying to get help through, so you can follow any progress.

[flashy275]

I've been somewhat side tracked at the moment but I have looked at the other threads you linked to & will be keeping an eye on proceedings. Expecting to be back with this in a week or two.

Good luck for now