Ggtkuk

So I am trying to create a dropdown on my homepage that will allow the user to select a brand and it will bring them to a page with each product that has that attribute selected.

So I took a post (http://www.blog.magepsycho.com/magento-utility-function-how-to-easily-create-select-box-for-drop-down-attributes/) and made a few changes to how it is called since it was throwing a fatal error.

function getSelectBox($attributeCode, $label = '', $defaultSelect = null, $extraParams = null)
 $options = array();
 $product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product');
 $attribute = $product->getResource()->getAttribute($attributeCode);
 if($attribute->usesSource())
 $options = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(false);
 array_unshift($options, array('label' => $label, 'value' => ''));
 

 $select = Mage::app()->getLayout()->createBlock('core/html_select')
 ->setName($attributeCode)
 ->setId($attributeCode)
 ->setTitle($label)
 ->setValue($defaultSelect)
 ->setExtraParams($extraParams)
 ->setOptions($options);
 return $select->getHtml();

This is the code that is calling the attributes inside of a dropdown.

The code I used to call it was:

<?php echo Mage::helper('function')->getSelectBox('manufacturer', 'Select Manufacturer'); ?>

This worked and called all the manufacturers for me however the issue is that if I select one of the manufacturers in the dropdown it does not bring me to another page with the products.

Each product in my store is assigned a manufacturer. Each manufacturer is listed in the dropdown. I just want it so when I click on one of the manufacturer options that it will bring me to a list of those products that have said manufacturer assigned.

I do not want an extension for this at all. Please refrain from suggesting them.

I do realize I can create categories for each of the brands as well however I am unsure if that would be the smartest way to do this.

Thank you! I would really appreciate any help here. :)

Based on this answer, using option #1, modified to work on Magento CE 1.9+:

<li>
 <a href="#">Browse by Manufacturer</a>
 <ul>
<?php $attribute = Mage::getSingleton('eav/config')->getAttribute('catalog_product', 'manufacturer');
if ($attribute->usesSource()) 
$options = $attribute->getSource()->getAllOptions(false);
foreach ($options as $option)

 echo '<li style="list-style:none"><a href="'.Mage::getUrl('catalogsearch/advanced/result').'?manufacturer%5B%5D='.$option['value'].'">'.$option['label'].'</a></li>';

 ?>
 </ul>
</li>