How can PHP developers efficiently handle the complexity of generating and displaying search results with multiple criteria and ranking systems in a forum application?

To efficiently handle the complexity of generating and displaying search results with multiple criteria and ranking systems in a forum application, PHP developers can use SQL queries with dynamic sorting and filtering based on user input. By utilizing SQL's powerful features, developers can easily retrieve and rank relevant search results based on various criteria such as date, popularity, relevance, etc. 

// Example SQL query to retrieve search results with dynamic sorting and filtering
$search_query = "SELECT * FROM posts WHERE title LIKE '%search_term%' OR content LIKE '%search_term%'";

// Add dynamic sorting based on user input
if ($sort_by == 'date') {
    $search_query .= " ORDER BY created_at DESC";
} elseif ($sort_by == 'popularity') {
    $search_query .= " ORDER BY views DESC";
} elseif ($sort_by == 'relevance') {
    $search_query .= " ORDER BY MATCH(title, content) AGAINST ('$search_term') DESC";
}

// Execute the query and display search results
$search_results = mysqli_query($conn, $search_query);
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($search_results)) {
    // Display search results
}

Keywords

PHP search results multiple criteria ranking systems forum application

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