[wp-hackers] integrating custom search function to additional database table

[Stefan Hartweg]

Hi,
I'm still looking for answers on how to interface my own search function
with the wordpress loop to display the results. I don't think I have really
explained what I'm trying to do:

I'm working on a plugin that is supposed to make queries to a table I
created in addition to the existing Wordpress tables.
I created the table because I needed to add extra data to posts and the meta
value table would not have an efficient way to store the data.
The table contains the post ID as well as the additional data fields. The
queries results will be a list of post ID's that match a certain set of data
fields.

With the list of post ID's I then want to query the posts database and
display the search results, like the existing search function displays them.

My problem is, I don't know how I can make my search function talk Wordpress
so that the results (i.e. the posts that match certain values from my own
table) get displayed on a page, using the loop?
I don't think I can use any use filters such as posts_where, as this uses
Wordpress' own query and not my own, or can I?

I've been stewing over this for a few days now and any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks.
Steve