does a search form require a model?

Yii 2.0 General Discussions
1

I want to create a search form on my homepage/man site index so the user can search a single table (product) using a keyword or also keyword plus brand select from dropdown and/or department selection from dropdown.

Does this require the form to have a model? Or should I create the search form without a model if that possible?

The keyword field of the search form would try to match the name field within the product table.

My other question is should I use POST or URL parameters (URL Parameter such as localhost:8888/advanced/search?keyword=ddd&brand=ddd&categoryddd)

2

You may use form without model and manually insert GET or POST parameters into query.

Model give you functions for mass assignment, validators and centralized labels.

3

Okay thank’s how can I create a form without it requiring the model parameter?

Bit of a newbie to yii2 so a link to documentation or a brief example would be cool. :)

4

With plain html or with very similar yii\helpers\Html methods.

active* fields contain label, form`s field and empty div for error messages.