how to customize search results in Asteroid Child

@llizard

I am using the Asteroid Child theme and would like to customize the search results without adding a search.php page.

What do you mean by “customize”? Modifying the results or the appearance? In what way?

Thank you for your reply, ronangelo.

What do you mean by “customize”? Modifying the results or the appearance? In what way?

I would like to modify the words in the heading of the wrap-404-box “Search Results: Nothing Found” AND the words in the <p> “Try a new keyword. I’m guessing by the presence of “asteroid” in that there might be a function I can use. I just don’t quite know where to look for that function.

<?php _e('Search Results: Nothing Found', 'asteroid'); ?>

Again, I’m very much hoping not to have to create a search.php for the Asteroid Child but to make the change in the theme’s functions.php

edit: I tried adding the following to functions.php, but of course, even though it doesn’t throw any errors, it didn’t work.

if ( is_search() ) {
    // add external search form (Google, Yahoo, Bing...)
echo $wp_query->found_posts .' search results for [' . attribute_escape($s) .']';
}

You can use functions.php to translate/change those words.
https://ronangelo.com/change-or-translate-text-on-a-wordpress-theme/

Fantastic! I’ll give that a shot. Many thanks, ronangelo!

The translate/change words coding works wonderfully. Thank you again.

My struggle continues: how can I add the following to the top of the search results page? Must I create a search.php?

<?php $wp_query->found_posts .'results for [' . get_search_query() .']'

Also, I have been unable to find where the coding is in the Asteroid files that produces the search result. I was hoping to show search results with title and the date only. Something along this line:

<ul>
<?php if [SOMETHING GOES HERE BUT WHAT??] : foreach [SOMETHING GOES HERE TOO BUT WHAT???]; ?>
        <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a> (<?php the_date(); ?>)</li>
    <?php endforeach; else: ?>
    <li><?php _e('Alas, nothing matched your criteria; please use the search form at the top of the page'); ?></li>
    <?php endif; ?>
    </ul>

I finally found that .blog-view is how the results are styled.

@llizard
My other newer theme Frontier outputs the search terms. I actually just forgot to add this functionality on Asteroid theme. You can however do something similar by adding this on your functions.php

function display_search_terms() {
	if ( is_search() ) {
		echo '<div id="my-search-terms">';
		echo 'Results for [ ' . get_search_query() . ' ]';
		echo '</div>';
	}
}
add_action( 'ast_hook_before_content', 'display_search_terms' );

You can then use the id “my-search-terms” to style that div.

I was hoping to show search results with title and the date only.

Easiest way I could think of is to just hide through css.

body.search-results article * {display: none;}
body.search-results article .entry-header,
body.search-results article .entry-header *,
body.search-results article .entry-date {display: inline;}

Thank you, once again, ronangelo. This display_search_terms() is most helpful.

But I’m not sure that using “display:none” for not showing the content is the way to go here. I worry that it might flag the site as an undesirable for the big search engines. (I get the impression they aren’t too keen on “display:none” when there is content there to be seen if the styles are disabled.)

I know the following must be wrong wrong wrong. But this is as far as I can guess from staring at https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Class_Reference/WP_Query

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

		<?php if ( $wp_query->found_posts == !is_singular() ) : ?>
	<ul>
<?php  if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
	while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
		$the_query->the_post();
		echo '<li>' . get_the_title() . '</li>';
	} ?>
</ul>
<?php } else {
	// no posts found
}?>

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
	<div>
		<h2 class="entry-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php echo the_title(); ?></a></h2>
		<div class="entry-date"><?php the_time(get_option('date_format')); ?></div>
	</div>
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
	<p>No Search Results</p>
<?php endif; ?>

Thank you once more, ronangelo.

I really am most appreciative for all the help, ronangelo. But after all that you have done, I have decided to go with adding a search.php in the child folder:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Search Page
*/

get_header(); ?>

<div id="content">

<p><strong>WordPress found <?php echo $wp_query->found_posts; ?> search results for [<?php echo attribute_escape($s); ?>].</strong></p>

<ul class="search-results-list">
    <?php if ($posts) : foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
        <li><h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a> (<?php the_date(); ?>)</h3> <?php the_excerpt(); ?></li>

    <?php endforeach; else: ?>
</ul>
    <p><?php _e('Please try again using different search term(s).'); ?></p>

 <?php get_search_form(); ?>
    <?php endif; ?>

</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

The other function fixes have been most informative though. Thank you again.