Search by Custom Fields

Hi @marcuslovedogs,

Yes, it’s possible. Right now, the BPFWE search widget only use the default search ‘s’ argument from WordPress, so it can only looks at post titles and content.

If you want the search bar to also look in your custom fields, you have two options:

1. Use the filter widget test input:

In your filter widget, go to “Data Source > Custom Field”, then “Field Type > Input Field”. This allows users to search your custom fields directly through the filter widget.

2. Use a Query ID with the filter widget:

Assign a unique Query ID to your filter widget under “Additional Options”. Then add the following to your child theme’s functions.php:

// Replace 'my_custom_filter' with your filter widget's Query ID
add_filter( 'bpfwe/filter_query_args/my_custom_filter', function( $args, $widget ) {
    
    // Get the search term from POST
    $search = ! empty( $_POST['search_query'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( wp_unslash( $_POST['search_query'] ) ) : '';

    if ( $search ) {
        $custom_fields = array( 'field_1', 'field_2', 'field_3' ); // change for your own ACF keys
        $meta_query = array( 'relation' => 'OR' );

        foreach ( $custom_fields as $field ) {
            $meta_query[] = [
                'key'     => $field,
                'value'   => $search,
                'compare' => 'LIKE',
            ];
        }

        // Merge with existing meta queries if any
        if ( isset( $args['meta_query'] ) ) {
            $args['meta_query'] = array_merge( $args['meta_query'], $meta_query );
        } else {
            $args['meta_query'] = $meta_query;
        }
    }

    return $args;
}, 10, 2 );

This setup will make the search bar looks into your custom fields as well.

If you want, I can also write a version if you’d like this to run without a filter widget on the same page. Let me know if any of those solutions work for you.

Regards,
Dara