Focusing Search

Improving the built in search functionality of WordPress

By Flynn O’Connor / @thoronas

My name is Flynn O’Connor

•Developing WordPress themes for 4 years.•Lead developer at Forge and Smith•Slides available here: http://slidesha.re/VTYhJ4

The basic form<form method="get" id="searchform” action="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>">

<div>

<label class="screen-reader-text" for="s">Search for:</label>

<input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" />

<input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search" />

</div>

</form>

How WordPress Search work?

When you use the default WordPress search form it’s the equivalent of this:$query = new WP_Query( ’s’ => ‘keyword’ );

Take Control

Inputs added to the form can control the query. But they must match the corresponding query parameters.

Doing it wrong

Neither of these will work automatically:

•<input name="post-type" type="hidden" value=”listing" />

•<input name="postType" type="hidden" value=”listing" />

It’s like trying to do:

$query = new WP_Query( ’post-type’ => ‘listing' );

The Right Way•<input name="post_type" type="hidden" value=”listing" />

Equivalent of:$query = new WP_Query(

’s’ => ‘keyword’,

‘post_type’ => ‘listing’ );

The Search query is altered to only search events posts.

Give users control

Allow users to search within a single category with a WordPress core function. Example:

<?php wp_dropdown_categories(); ?>

Outputs:<select id="cat" name="cat">

<option value="1" class="level-0">Uncategorized</option>

<option value="4" class="level-0">Featured</option>

</select>

Expanding the choices<?php $search_taxonomy = get_terms( ’custom_taxonomy' );

if ( !empty( $search_categories ) ) {

foreach( $search_taxonomy as $term) {

echo ‘<label for=”term_’ . $term->term_id . ‘">

<input type="checkbox" name=”custom_tax[]”id=”term_' . $term->term_id . '" value="' . $term->term_id . ’”>' . $term->name . ‘</label>’;

}} ?>

The results

What your form looks like:

What your query string looks like

Form inputs are helpful for adding simple search parameters. But for multiple choice elements we need more control.The following won’t work:

$args = array (‘custom_tax’ => array(7, 8)

);$query = new WP_Query( $args );

Say hello to my little friend

pre_get_posts

This action will alter the query before it is run. With this you can do complicated search queries involving taxonomies and meta values.

function filter_search_terms (){if ( isset( $_GET['category'] ) ) {

global $wp_query;$categories = array_map( 'absint',

$_GET['category'] );

$tax_args = array (array(

'taxonomy' => 'category','field' => 'id','terms' => $categories

));$wp_query->set('tax_query', $tax_args);

}}

add_action('pre_get_posts','filter_search_terms');

Changing the structure

If you allow search for multiple post types sometimes you will need to have different structure/layout for your content.

get_post_type( )

Use this to load different templates based on the post types searched.

while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

get_template_part( ’content', get_post_type() );

endwhile;

The elephant in the room

The major problem with the built in WordPress search: search results can’t be sorted by relevance to the search term.

You can sort the results :• Date• Name• Menu Order• Random

Relevanssi

Default search results ordered by relevance instead of date.

Non relevant search results

Relevant search results

Plays nice with others

Because we are using pre_get_posts and passing valid query variables via form elements all of our custom search queries will work with Relevanssi right out of the box.

Thanks for listening!

Questions/Comments?