Searchable .PDF Library

Hi @perkinz

Yes, WPFTS Pro will do that. Please do not hesitate to get your evaluation version here
https://fulltextsearch.org/evaluation/ .

Thanks for getting back so quickly!

Does each document need to be in a separate post? Or can they all be on one page?

How about bulk uploading via FTP?

Can you send a link to the documentation?

Well, the search unit for WPFTS is a wp_post record. It’s a post, page, custom post, or attachment.

In order for a PDF file to be searchable, you need to upload it to WP Media Library (you can find lots of free plugins that allow bulk file uploading to WP Media Library).

Another way is to include the PDF file as the custom meta field to another post.

Also, you can place a direct link to PDF into the post/page/custom_post content.

The basics of the plugin functionality are described here
https://fulltextsearch.org/documentation/

But the plugin is much flexible than it may be seen. Please explain your exact application and I will even send you the small addon file which links your data with the WPFTS Pro index (if required).

Thanks.

Here’s what I need to do:

I’ve got thousands of .PDF files that are not yet uploaded to my site. I need to set up a user accessible “library” where these .PDFs can be browsed and searched for (searching within indexed .PDF content) by visitors to my site.

Hope this is clear. If so, how do I best accomplish my goal using your plugin? What are the steps I should take?

Hi @perkinz

The simplest way I think is to upload all those documents into the WP Media Library. (You even can use the plugin which adds a structure to WP Media Library – categories, folders, etc. I think it would be useful for your project to have such things. There are some of those plugins, I can not recommend the exact one.)

The WPFTS Pro will make it possible to search those files by content (you don’t need to config anything for this, indexing attachments from WP Media Library is a default WPFTS Pro behavior).

Next, you can protect your “attachment page” in the theme so only registered/paid users can open and see PDFs. If you need that.

Ok, I understand the uploading part; thanks!

But how do I make all of these files visible/searchable to my end user?

Do I create a new page and embed a smart code to display the files for searching/browsing?

Or?

Hi @perkinz

There is a special “search results” page in the WP by default. The same page will be used to display found PDFs. You can replace this page using other plugins or construct it with your lovely Page Builder. It depends on your theme.

There is a possibility to create your own search results page, but it’s not different from the basic scenario – everything is the same as you do it without WPFTS.

Thank you.

So users would search on an essentially blank page and then results would pop up?

No need to post the files to a page for browsing? Correct?

Also, do you have a link where I could see this plugin functionality in action?

Thank you!

You need to use a native WP search widget or the widget from your selected theme. It’s no difference.

WPFTS Pro will show each attachment in search results like a usual post/page.

For example, this is the search results page on my dev machine
https://e-wm.org/i/E20201211-170018-001.png

Each attachment was represented as a separate post here.

>> Also, do you have a link where I could see this plugin functionality in action?

It’s really simple to install the Pro evaluation version and test on your own website, really ??

Hi there!
I just wanted to say that I am looking for same solution as @perkinz .

Hi @spoguliscom

Did you already get your evaluation copy? If not – please do that.
https://fulltextsearch.org/evaluation/

Thanks.