I have a Advanced Search feature where in I first search for a key word and then i refine my search by selecting the different filters in a different category, these are multi-select check boxes.
Example: Lets say I am looking for a "Car" once I enter this in the search box and press enter i will get broad set of results. Now i need to refine my search, something like I select the check box for "Honda" & "Toyota" under manufacturer category next I have the country category where I can select "United States" it will list me all states under US now I can select "Washington" next I can refine to some city of Washington and so on....
So testing for results for all possible filter selections is very difficult. So I was wondering if the ECP design pattern can be applied for this testing ?. How can i optimize my testing ? Any examples will be of great help.
Presumably each checkbox for each car manufacturer is implemented in exactly the same way, so yes.
But I would not really describe this as "advanced search", this is more like "faceted search". (Are you testing Ebay by any chance? This sounds exactly like Ebay.)