Limit Search Results to Custom Post Type?

I am seeking this too. I would like to be able to:
1) Search only specific custom post types. For example if I have Books and Food, I only want to be able to search for Books posts.

2) Conduct searches on fields within the custom post types. For example, if I have posts under Books, I want to have allow users to search on a dropdown for the language the book and/or enter text for an author’s name and/or enter text in another field for the year of the book’s publishing… then all/any of the search choices will be used to generate search results.

This has worked for me….
<input type="hidden" name="post_type" value="post type name" />

bgajus : thanks for that. adding that one little hidden field saved me hours of trouble!!

@bgajus: Yes, this is great and works well!

However is there a means by which I can search within a specific field? My goal is to create a listings website and natively use WordPress’ new features to help search within a field.

This doesnt seem to work for me- the search ignored the passed post_type data and searches in all types. Any tips or sample code from those who had success with this? Thanks!

I apologize for what might be a stupid questions but where would you put that line of code?

Thanks.

I’ve used the following. In it’s raw state, all you need to do is put &type=post_type (i.e. &type=movies) on the end of the URL. You could probably do this with a drop down/radio buttons on your search form.

function mySearchFilter($query) {
	$post_type = $_GET['type'];
	if (!$post_type) {
		$post_type = 'any';
	}
    if ($query->is_search) {
        $query->set('post_type', $post_type);
    };
    return $query;
};

add_filter('pre_get_posts','mySearchFilter');

Thank you. Is there a similar way to simply include custom post types in an overall search?

I’m looking for the same answer: How to include custom post types in an overall search?

bgajus – what a great nugget!

I was having some trouble getting bgajus’s solution to work. After some poking around I found that I needed to have this at the top of my search.php template file.

<?php
global $query_string;

$query_args = explode("&", $query_string);
$search_query = array();

foreach($query_args as $key => $string) {
	$query_split = explode("=", $string);
	$search_query[$query_split[0]] = $query_split[1];
} // foreach

$search = new WP_Query($search_query);
?>

Then follow the instructions here when you set up your search results loop.

@alanchrishughes @dapro

I think you guys are looking for:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/register_post_type#Parameters

Check out the public and publicly_queryable arguements

Just in case anyone is looking for a way to create a search form that provides selectable drop-down list of their custom post types, here is what worked for me:

<form role="search" method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>">
	<input type="text" name="s" id="s" value="Enter keywords ..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><br />
	<select name="post_type">
		<option value="">Choose Category:</option>
		<option value="">All Categories</option>
		<option value="post_type_a">Post Type A</option>
		<option value="post_type_b">Post Type B</option>
		 <option value="post_type_c">Post Type C</option>
	</select><br />
	<input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search Help" />
</form>

Obviously, replace post_type_a with your unique post type name and Post Type A with your post type label. Good luck!

Justin
https://www.cerebralideas.com

This is very helpful, thanks!

@ralpheweotto you saved my life!

I didn′t realize you could restrict the search by the custom post type arguments… thanks!