<div id="sidebar_container">

    <h3>Search</h3>
    <form id="search_form" method="post" action="<?php echo $this->config->item('base_url')?>items/do_search">
    <p><input type="text" name="query" class="text_input" value="<?php if (isset($query)): echo $query; endif;?>" /> <input type="submit" /></p>
    </form>

</div>