add post type to search results and filter by meta value

• mmjaeger

• May 15, 2022 at 8:10 pm

Hello
I’d like to add some custom post types to the WP search results – however, some of those post types have a status field and the search results should be filtered by that – obviously some other post types e.g. ‘post’ do not have that status field – how can I do that – is there an easy way:

the following code is not working, or maybe works partially – hope somebody can get me going on this – thank you in advance for your help.

` function themeprefix_include_custom_post_types_in_search_results( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_main_query() && $query->is_search() && ! is_admin() ) {
$query->set( ‘post_type’, array( ‘post’, ‘cpt1’, ‘cpt2’, ‘cpt3’, ‘opportunity’ ) );

$query->set( ‘meta_query’, array(
‘relation’ => ‘OR’,
array(
‘key’ => ‘cpt1_status’,
‘value’ => ‘1’,
‘compare’ => ‘=’,
‘type’ => ‘NUMERIC’,
),
array(
‘key’ => ‘cpt2_status’,
‘value’ => ‘1’,
‘compare’ => ‘=’,
‘type’ => ‘NUMERIC’,
),
));

}
}
add_action( ‘pre_get_posts’, ‘themeprefix_include_custom_post_types_in_search_results’ );

• John Huebner

• May 16, 2022 at 9:40 am

You create a nested meta query

$meta_query = array(
  'relation' => 'OR',
  array(
    // cpt1_status exists and is == 1
    'relation' => 'AND',
    array(
      'key' => 'cpt2_status',
      'compare' => 'EXISTS'
    ),
    array(
      'key' => 'cpt1_status',
      'value' => '1'
      'compare' => '='
    )
  ),
  // repeat to cpt2_status
);

• mmjaeger

• May 16, 2022 at 5:43 pm

Thank you John – that somewhat got me going – what I did NOT considered/knew at all is that the custom fields are not searched at all so I’m not really sure where I will go from here.

• mmjaeger

• May 16, 2022 at 5:51 pm

Thanks David – what I did not knew/considered that the WP search does not search my custom fields – so we are able to add the post types to the search but not the custom fields it seems.

• mmjaeger

• May 16, 2022 at 6:33 pm

@John – when setting the meta query I’m not getting any search results of search terms in pages – how do I get around that?

• John Huebner

• May 17, 2022 at 9:32 am

I don’t know, I’d have to see your entire query. Please use code tags if you post it.

• mmjaeger

• May 17, 2022 at 5:41 pm

Here you go – I had to comment the meta query in order to have the default search returning any results?

   function themeprefix_include_custom_post_types_in_search_results( $query ) {
        
        if ( $query->is_main_query() && $query->is_search() && ! is_admin() ) {
            
            $query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'case', 'client', 'event', 'job', 'opportunity', 'partner', 'team' ) );
            /*
            $query->set( 'meta_query', array (
                'relation' => 'OR',
                array (
                    'relation' => 'AND',
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'job_status',
                      'compare'   => 'EXISTS'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'key'     => 'job_status',
                        'value'   => '1',
                        'compare' => '=',
                        'type'    => 'NUMERIC'
                    ),
                ),
                array (
                    'relation' => 'AND',
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'opportunity_status',
                      'compare'   => 'EXISTS'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'key'     => 'opportunity_status',
                        'value'   => '1',
                        'compare' => '=',
                        'type'    => 'NUMERIC'
                    ),
                )
            ) );
            */
        }
    }
    add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'themeprefix_include_custom_post_types_in_search_results' );

• John Huebner

• May 18, 2022 at 10:05 am

You are going to need to add another section to the query to cover post types that do not have either of the fields.

$query->set( 'meta_query', array (
                'relation' => 'OR',
                array (
                    'relation' => 'AND',
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'job_status',
                      'compare'   => 'EXISTS'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'key'     => 'job_status',
                        'value'   => '1',
                        'compare' => '=',
                        'type'    => 'NUMERIC'
                    ),
                ),
                array (
                    'relation' => 'AND',
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'opportunity_status',
                      'compare'   => 'EXISTS'
                    ),
                    array(
                        'key'     => 'opportunity_status',
                        'value'   => '1',
                        'compare' => '=',
                        'type'    => 'NUMERIC'
                    ),
                ),
                // custom fields do not exist
                array(
                   'relation' => 'AND',
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'job_status',
                      'compare'   => 'NOT EXISTS'
                    ),
                    array (
                      'key'       => 'opportunity_status',
                      'compare'   => 'NOT EXISTS'
                    ),
  
                  )
            ) );

• mmjaeger

• May 18, 2022 at 6:13 pm

Thank you John – very much appreciated – I still have to learn a lot.

• mmjaeger

• May 18, 2022 at 7:42 pm

getting a server error now – maybe just timing out:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at [email protected] to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

• John Huebner

• May 26, 2022 at 9:55 am

Sorry for the late reply, yes, too many nested queries can cause the query to time out.

You have a complex search. I have done similar things.

You could simplify the search by doing some more work. You want to exclude some fields from search.

I would set up a standard WP meta field “exclude_from_search”

When one of your custom post types is updated add an acf/save_post filter. In this filter determine by your custom fields if the post should be excluded and update post meta “excluded_from_search” to 0 or 1 (false or true).

The you can simplify the query to look for this field not existing or set to 0 rather that have multiple meta values that need to be looked at.