I have a visualforce page that searches for contacts based on FirstName & LastName.The firstname & lastname fields are autopopulated using the email address value from another custom object.

However, i would also like the user to have the ability to edit the auto-populated firstname & lastname values with their on input before the search. The problem is the page only seems to perform the search using only the original auto-populated values & will not accept newly user input values,since everytime the user input values & clicks the search button,the PageBlockSection refreshes and fill the fields with the original auto-populated values.

Kindly advice on how to make the input text field accept both autopopulated values as well as user input values.

Below is some part of my wrapper class & visualforce page.

public String  firstName;
public String  lastName;
public String userinput;
public String userinp;
public List<cContact> contactList {get; set;}   

Public List<Contact> results = new List<Contact>(); 
 
/* Getter and setter methods for getting the user input ie. Contact name from the UI */

public String getUserinput(){return userinput;}
public void setUserinput(String userinp){this.userinput=userinp;}
public String getUserinp(){return userinp;}
public void setUserinp(String userinp){this.userinp=userinp;}

//Getter and setters for firstname and lastname
/* Method to Search the contact database to fetch the query results */
public List<Contact> contactsearch()
{    
     contactList = new List<cContact>();
     
     for(Contact c : [select Account.Name,Name,Alternative_Email_Address1__c,Alternative_Email_Address2__c,Assistant_s_Email2__c,FirstName,LastName,Email,title,Id from Contact where Email like :userinput+'%' and (FirstName = :firstName or FirstName like :userinp+'%' )and (LastName = :lastName or LastName like :userin+'%') ])
     {
        contactList.add(new cContact(c));
        
     }
return null;
}
/* Method for returning the contact search results to the UI */
public List<cContact> getResults()
{  
  return contactList;
}

<apex:form >
<apex:sectionHeader title="Step 1" subtitle="Select Client(s) to Add to:"/>
<apex:pageblock id="theBlock">
<apex:pageMessages /> <!-- this is where the error messages will appear -->
<apex:pageBlockSection title="Search Contacts" columns="1" ></apex:pageBlockSection>
<!-- Div to give a colored box effect -->
<div style="border-width:2px;border-style:solid;border-color:orange;">
    <!-- Panel grid to display boxes for accepting user input values -->
    <apex:panelGrid columns="2" >
        <apex:outputLabel style="font-weight:bold;" value="Client First Name" ></apex:outputLabel>
        <apex:inputText value="{!firstName}" id="firstName" disabled="false" />
        <apex:outputLabel style="font-weight:bold;"  value="Client Last Name" ></apex:outputLabel>
        <apex:inputText value="{!lastName}" id="lastName" disabled="false"  />
     </apex:panelGrid>
    <!-- End of panelgrid -->
    <!-- Div to position the commandbutton appropriately -->
        <div style="position:relative;left:75px;">
             <apex:commandButton value="Search" action="{!contactsearch}" reRender="theBlock"/>
        </div>
    <!-- End of div -->