Conceptual: Extend the search to BuddyPress components

[zedejose]

Following this conversation on FB, I'd like to start a conversation about extending the plugin's search scope to BuddyPress components.

The way I see it, it would need (at least) 3 enhancements:

Additional settings on the dashboard

Basically allowing the user to switch on/off which BP components should be searched. Looks pretty easy to implement, thanks to your very handy admin functions. I've tried it like the example below, in /inc/class-gsp-admin.php:

if ( class_exists('BuddyPress' ) )
            add_settings_section( 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', __( 'BuddyPress Components', 'gee-search-plus' ) , array( $this,'settings_section_buddypress'), 'gee-search-plus' );

// some more code...

        //SECTION: BuddyPress
        if ( class_exists('BuddyPress' ) ) {
            // Enable search Members - Members component is active by default, no need to check
            add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-members', __( 'Search on Members', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_members]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_members', 'value' => $options ) );
            // Enable search Profile fields
            if ( bp_is_active( 'xprofile' ) )
                add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-xprofile', __( 'Search on Profile Fields', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_xprofile]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_xprofile', 'value' => $options ) );
            // Enable search Messages
            if ( bp_is_active( 'messages' ) )
                add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-messages', __( 'Search on Messages', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_messages]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_messages', 'value' => $options ) );
            // Enable search Activity
            if ( bp_is_active( 'activity' ) )
                add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-activity', __( 'Search on Activity', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_activity]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_activity', 'value' => $options ) );
            // Enable search Groups
            if ( bp_is_active( 'groups' ) )
                add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-groups', __( 'Search on Groups', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_groups]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_groups', 'value' => $options ) );
            // Enable search Forums
            if ( bp_is_active( 'forums' ) )
                add_settings_field( 'gee-settings-bp-forums', __( 'Search on Forums', 'gee-search-plus' ), array( $this,'settings_checkbox'), 'gee-search-plus', 'gee-settings-section-buddypress', array( 'name' => 'gee_searchplus_options[enable_bp_forums]', 'key' => 'enable_bp_forums', 'value' => $options ) );
        }

The search functions themselves

Which would be a variation of the ones used in my plugin, see https://github.com/zedejose/bp-search-everything/blob/master/includes/bp-search-everything-functions.php

Adding the BP results to the global search results

This is where I hesitated. BP Search Everything returns x of each component, with a link to further results. The logic behind this is that BP content is stored in different tables and (mostly) not in a format compatible with the WP_Post object, which is what gSearch is returning (via a WP_Query object).

The only way I can imagine to do this without a major architectural refactoring (and I may very well be wrong), is to create "pseudo-posts", i.e. arrays of $var = new WP_Post(), and array_push'ing those into the query results.

_The above approach, by the way, would have the benefit of allowing for a theoretically limitless extension of the plugin, since virtually any WP or direct SQL search query results could be added to the object_

In short

This was an idea of an approach, I'm not even sure it's the best one, but I'd like to discuss it.

[luistinygod]

Nice overview, Zé!

I agree with your approach on the dashboard and core functions. Merging the results is the issue here.

Philosophical speaking, geeSearch Plus was meant to inject a list of posts (pages, custom post types) matching a certain search criteria into the main search query, without messing with the templates (search.php or other).

So, it seems that your idea of converting BP Search Everything results as WP_Post objects and inject them into $wp_query at the very end of method 'extend_search_at_wp' could do the magic.

Pressure points of this approach (the way I see it):

• How to sort combined results by relevance?
• How to handle with pagination?

[zedejose]

• 'Relevance' isn't a concept in BuddyPress (yet?)
• Pagination doesn't indeed work, I need to investigate