Search Fields

• Author: Mark Croxton

Version 2.0.3

• Requires: ExpressionEngine 2

Description

Search channel entry titles, entry custom fields, category names, category descriptions, category custom fields and Tagger tags.

Installation

1. Copy the folder search_fields to ./system/expressionengine/third_party/

Parameters

search:[field]= (optional)

Field can be title, cat_name, cat_description, [custom_fieldname], cat[custom_field_name]. Tagger module tags assigned to an entry can be also be searched in the form: [tagger_custom_field_name]="tagger=[tag]"

Search parameter syntax is identical to the channel search parameter.

Note that when searching categories references to category fields should be prefixed with 'cat_'.

For example: search:cat_name="keyword" search:cat_description="keyword" search:cat_custom_field="keyword"

channel= (optional)

Channel(s) name to search. Pipe-delimited list, e.g. products|pages Default is * (searches all channels).

operator= (optional)

'AND' or 'OR'. Operator for joining search field WHERE conditions. Default is 'OR'.

delimiter= (optional)

Delimiter for returned entry id string. Default is pipe |.

placeholder= (optional)

Single variable placeholder to replace with search results output. Default is search_results (use as {search_results}).

site= (optional)

The site id. Default is current site id

min_length= (optional)

The minimum length for the search term. Default is 3.

dynamic_parameters= (optional)

Allow specific search parameters to set via $_POST. E.g. "title|custom_field".

Note: your form fields should have the same name as the fields you wish to search, but prefixed with 'search:'. E.g.:

<input type="text" name="search:title">

Sample use

This plugin is best used as a tag pair wrapping {exp:channel:entries}, e.g.:

{exp:search_fields 
    search:title="keyword" 
    search:custom_field="keyword" 
    search:cat_name="keyword" 
    operator="OR" 
    channel="my_channel" 
    parse="inward"}
    {exp:channel:entries entry_id="{search_results}" disable="member_data|categories" dynamic="no" orderby="title" sort="asc" limit="10"}
        <a href="https://github.com/croxton/Search_fields/blob/master/{page_url}">{title}</a>
    {/exp:channel:entries}
{/exp:search_fields}

Use in combination with get_parameters and an embedded template to persist POSTed search keywords for pagination, e.g.:

{embed="search_results" search='{exp:get_parameters post="search"}'}

The search_results template could look like:

{exp:search_fields 
    search:title="{embed:search}" 
    search:cat_name="{embed:search}" 
    search:tags="tagger={embed:search}"
    operator="OR" 
    channel="my_channel" 
    parse="inward"}

    <p>Search results for &lsquo;<em>{embed:search}</em>&rsquo;</p>
    {exp:channel:entries channel="my_channel" entry_id="{search_results}" disable="member_data|categories" dynamic="no" orderby="title" sort="asc" limit="10"}

        <a href="https://github.com/croxton/Search_fields/blob/master/{page_url}">{title}</a>

        {paginate}
        <div class="pagination">
            <ul>
                <li class="previous">{if previous_page}<a href="https://github.com/croxton/Search_fields/blob/master/{auto_path}">Prev</a>{/if}</li>
                <li class="next">{if next_page}<a href="https://github.com/croxton/Search_fields/blob/master/{auto_path}">Next</a>{/if}</li>
            </ul>
            <p>Page {current_page} of {total_pages}</p>
        </div>
        {/paginate}

    {/exp:channel:entries}

    {if no_results}
        <p class="intro">Sorry, no matches were found for &lsquo;<em>{embed:search}</em>&rsquo;.</p>
    {/if}
{/exp:search_fields}

Caveats

This plugin can be memory intensive if you have lots of entries and search all channels.

It is NOT a replacement for the Search module, rather it is best used for custom filtering of entries in a single channel.