My site requires an extremely user-friendly locator on every page and I'd like to simplify the usability of the advanced search and associated input widgets.

My idea is to combine the zip and city forms with some javascript to parse and write the inputs on submit. If 5 digit # then zip, else if alpha string then city, otherwise retry. (Obviously some informational text and/or icons will be present to help the user as well).

Has anyone done this or something similar?

Or are server-side php mods the way to go instead of javascript?

I would think that adding php code to the results_list.php page would service you best.

We do not have any code for that though, sorry.