The Problem

Sometimes you want to search for posts that have a PDF file attached to it. Assume you don't want to display the attached files themselves in the search results. But instead, you want these parent posts (maybe custom post types) shown in search results using attached files content.

The solution to this can be complex. Because there are numerous ways how the file can be attached to the post. For example:

1. Very simple case - you can put post ID to attachment's record as the post_parent. In this case, Wordpress considers the attachment is "uploaded" to the post.

2. Another case is when you put the PDF attachment ID to the arbitrary post's meta field.

3. You can put a direct PDF link or file path to the post's meta field.

4. You can have a PDF link mentioned somewhere in the post_content. For example, you have some text where is one or more direct links to PDF files.

5. You even can have a shortcode which is included in the post_content and this shortcode may explode to something very beautiful - for example, PDF viewer widget or real3D book.

6. Imagine more cases...

Ok, well. So how we should manage all these cases?

Basic Idea of the Algorithm

The solution could be almost impossible with the usual "direct" Wordpress search. But the indexed search is a "silver bullet" for this type of task.

The main idea is here. We need to extract the content from the included file(s) and put it to the specific search index cluster of the parent post.

Issue Description:

After installing your plugin, I have searched for the word "operational" and have received the pure HTML code in search results:

<div class="wpfts-result-item"><div class="wpfts-smart-excerpt"></div> 
<div class="wpfts-not-found"><span> Not found: <s>operational</s></span></div> 
<div class="wpfts-bottom-row"><span class="wpfts-scor.

Solution:

The reason of this issue is because the Flatbase theme is using it's own excerpt processing. We need to override this.
Please open the file search.php in the root of your theme (you can use flatbase-child theme too) and scroll to the line 89. You should to find this code there:

<?php nice_excerpt(); ?>

please change this to

<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

This change should help. To show correct excerpt in the search results.

Hi, Vasiliki

Thank you for the question!

Yes, initially WPFTS Pro was only able to search within files that are included in WP Media Library. We are developing an addon currently which will enable search by any file or file directory.

ETA of the test version is 25 Apr 2020.

What Is It?

The Wordpress Fulltext Search Pro (shortly WPFTS) is a plugin for Wordpress, which sufficiently extends its integrated search functionality.

Why I need for WPFTS on my blog/website/store?

Because the standard (integrated) Wordpress search only allows searching records (posts, pages, products, etc) by title and content. It ignores meta-data, attachments, custom fields, shortcode output and other data which can be useful to search for. Using WPFTS for your website you can include virtually anything the search index and thus can do it searchable.

How it does that?

WPFTS uses some techniques to extend search functionality. Let's review each part in detail.

• Word-based Search Index - WPFTS does not use MySQL's integrated full-text search. Instead, it pre-processes all textual data, breaks them into simple words and stores in a well-organized structure called "Word-based Index". This structure allows us to implement a fast search algorithm, which looks up for queried words first, and then it returns the list of respective posts/data records.

• Extended Search Parameters - The basic search function of Wordpress, WP_Query(), allows to create relatively complex search queries. However, Wordpress by default does not use most of them. So, when the user makes a search via a standard search widget, most of your data will be still hidden from his eyes. WPFTS allows you to configure default search parameters, so you can control the area which will be used to search even using default Search Widget.
  Additionally, WPFTS adds a lot more input parameters for WP_Query() in order to effectively use the word-based search index features (like clusters, relevance weights, etc).

• Attachment Content Indexing - In case your website contains attachments (PDF files, Microsoft Word files, Drawings, Powerpoint, etc) they will be also searchable with WPFTS. How it is done? With the help of an internal library written on PHP or external service (Textmill.io) the plugin will extract textual info from these binary files and put it to search index, so attachments become searchable by content. Additionally, it tweaks WP_Query() thus WP will recognize attachments as usual posts and show them in search results.

• Smart Excerpts - The basic Wordpress method to the output search result excerpts is very simple: it simply shows the first 55 words of the found post and that's it. Thus a user may never see a context where his queried word(s) is used. WPFTS in opposite shows only sentences where queried terms included, highlighting them. If you ever saw Google search results (yes, you did), then you should understand what it means.

• Dynamic Data Indexing - The special hook function allows the developer to include virtually any data to the search index, thus each Wordpress record can be associated with this data. This option adds unbeatable flexibility to the WPFTS.

When should I pay?

You need to purchase the WPFTS Pro license for the first time, to get the current product version and one year of technical support and updates (we update the plugin normally each month). Additionally, this license includes a one-year service from Textmill.io.

What happens when my license expired?

All search functionality of the plugin remains to work as before. However, you will need to renew the license to get newer versions of the plugin, to get direct technical support or to use Textmill.io API to extract text from binary document files.

I bought a license, installed the plugin and decided the plugin does not fit my needs

Okay, it's not a problem. We provide a 14-day 100% refund if you decided the plugin does not work for you.

I could not find the answer to my question here

Please contact us in the Live Chat (which is available from any page of the main WPFTS site) or write your answer in this theme. We will be happy to answer!