Table JOIN in Query object; View creation?

[AshleyOwens]

In the Search widget, we have combobox 1 (???Transmission Line???).  I need to add combobox 2 (Structure #) that will pull the Structure #s based on the Transmission Line selected.  This SQL will involve a one-to-many JOIN b/t 2 tables.
Secondly, when the user clicks the ???Search??? button, I need to navigate them on the map to the specific Structure # on the Transmission Line.

Questions:
1) Is it possible to perform a JOIN within a Query object?  Or do I need to create a view with the 2 tables and query that?
2) Currently when the user clicks ???Search???, they are navigated to the center of the Transmission Line. I don???t know how I???d use the map service it???s currently using to do that. Ideas?

[JohnGarvey]

This is a general comment so...

I don't think you can join items in a query string, but in the rest api 10 you can get related records. This is something you will need to set-up in your data sources and expose in your map service.

Otherwise, I would use plain look-up tables and some server-side code. I use php to create a rest service for lookup tables and then construct layer queries.