location, cck, views, activeselect and taxonomy; your input is requested...

Hey everyone,
This post is to solicit feedback in solving a problem that I currently have. I am assuming that I will have to build a module to do what I need, but I would like to get other people's input as early in this process as possible so I can make better decisions right away.

Here is my problem:
I am rebuilding a large community site that caters to backpackers (primarily in Europe). We will have a large amount of information (much of which will be user generated) that needs to be categorized to a location. For example, if I am traveling to Paris, France, I will want to get as much info about the things to do there and other peoples experiences as possible. Because of this I want most (if not all) of my content to be localized.

I would essentially like to have an activeselect at the top of a view that will narrow down the results of the view dynamically as more selections are made (similar to an exposed filter, but a much more pimped out version). I would have content types such as Hostel Reviews, Travelogues, Photo Galleries, Videos, (the list goes on), but on each of these content types you would specify the location of the content (Country and City for now). So now in the view when you select 'France' all of the content is narrowed down to content from France. It would then populate the 'Cities' active select and if you select a City, then the view would be filtered even more. You would also have all content types that were for that city in France showing in that view. You could then select the type of content that you want, such as Hostel Reviews and it would narrow down the search just to the Hostel Review for that city.

I think you understand my use case well enough now that you will understand the rest of this post.

Where I am at:
I have been researching my options for this and I have not found an acceptable solution yet. I would like to use the 'Location' module if possible so I can integrate with some of the other cool features that it opens up, but since most of my data will be for Europe, this module really doesn't help me that much. I have only really played with it a bit and haven't looked at the code yet, but the first thing that hits me is that it does not have the Country -> City drop down boxes for my users to select the location. I don't want to have my users to enter the city in a text box because then I have to worry about all the duplicates. I may be able to add this, but I have not gotten to that point yet. (Any help or clarification on this would be appreciated...)

My current set up is as follows:
I have a hierarchy of terms using the Taxonomy module that has Country and City in it. I have gotten this working with ActiveSelect in a CCK field for a small subset of data which allows me to have a dynamic drop down in my content type for specifying the location. This solution works for me right now. I need to collect a full list of Country and City information to put into XML format and then import into Taxonomy, which I have not done yet, but I know this is possible. (Any help with this would be appreciated...)

So now I have content types that can be narrowed down by the location specified on creation. I have a View set up that has an exposed filter for 'Taxonomy: Terms for Region' where the user can select the city and submit to get the results. There are a few problems with this current setup. All of the terms (Country and City) are in the same drop down. This means that if you select a country and hit submit it will give you no results (because the content is actually in the sub category). This can be changed with the depth of the filter, but that is kind of besides the point. The main point is that I don't want all of the Countries and Cities to be in the same list. I can create 2 exposed filters for just the Countries and then for just the Cities (depth), but if you select a Country, it will not narrow down the list of Cities (this is very important due to the amount of data present).

What I would like:
I would like to have an exposed filter that is an activeselect that dynamically adds additional exposed filters that are also activeselect fields. All the while filtering the information that the view displays. It doesn't even have to be an activeselect field (that would be nice), but I need a way to have exposed filters dynamically update/add other exposed filters (so to narrow down the cities if a specific country is selected).

Now that your head is spinning:
The way I currently see this problem, I will have to create a new module that pretty much integrates activeselect as an option for the exposed filters in the views module. Can anyone give me any hints as to how to do this RIGHT?

I am pretty much looking for feedback to get me started on this the best way possible. I am pretty new to Drupal development, but I have been a web developer for many years now. I recently started working my way through the 'Pro Drupal Development' book, but I haven't gotten far enough yet to consider myself a master of Drupal in any way shape or form.

If you see problems with my approach or think that there may be an easier way to solve my problem PLEASE speak up. I have noticed a bit of a push for using CCK and Views instead of stand alone modules, so I think the ability to use activeselect in views is probably something people may want.

Cheers...