Using meta query ('meta_query') with a search query ('s')

Question

Trying to build a search that not only searches the defaults (title, content etc) but also a specific custom field.

My current query:

$args = array(
  'post_type' => 'post',
  's' => $query,
  'meta_query' => array(
     array(
       'key' => 'speel',
       'value' => $query,
       'compare' => 'LIKE'
     )
   )
);

$search = new WP_Query( $args )
...

This returns posts which match both the search query AND the meta query, but I would also like it to also return posts where it simply matches either one of them.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

What you are wanting to do isn't possible using just one search query. You would need to run both queries separately and then merge them together. This has been described at this other answer. It should give you a hand with how to do it.

Can i merge 2 new WP_Query($variable) 's?

Answer 2

Well its kind of a hack but it works. You need to add posts_clauses filter. This filter function check for the any of the query word exists in the custom field "speel" and the remaining query stays intact.

function custom_search_where($pieces) {

    // filter for your query
    if (is_search() && !is_admin()) {

        global $wpdb;

        $keywords = explode(' ', get_query_var('s'));
        $query = "";
        foreach ($keywords as $word) {

            // skip possible adverbs and numbers
            if (is_numeric($word) || strlen($word) <= 2) 
                continue;

            $query .= "((mypm1.meta_key = 'speel')";
            $query .= " AND (mypm1.meta_value  LIKE '%{$word}%')) OR ";
        }

        if (!empty($query)) {
            // add to where clause
            $pieces['where'] = str_replace("(((wp_posts.post_title LIKE '%", "( {$query} ((wp_posts.post_title LIKE '%", $pieces['where']);

            $pieces['join'] = $pieces['join'] . " INNER JOIN {$wpdb->postmeta} AS mypm1 ON ({$wpdb->posts}.ID = mypm1.post_id)";
        }
    }
    return ($pieces);
}
add_filter('posts_clauses', 'custom_search_where', 20, 1);

Answer 3

Did you happen to get this working based of the idea of merging two separate queries? Im wondering how this would post order and relevance of the search.

I am attempting to do the exact thing as you.

-d

Answer 4

As per Nick Perkins' suggestion, I had to merge two queries like so:

$q1 = get_posts(array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        's' => $query
));

$q2 = get_posts(array(
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'meta_query' => array(
            array(
               'key' => 'speel',
               'value' => $query,
               'compare' => 'LIKE'
            )
         )
));

$merged = array_merge( $q1, $q2 );

$post_ids = array();
foreach( $merged as $item ) {
    $post_ids[] = $item->ID;
}

$unique = array_unique($post_ids);

$posts = get_posts(array(
    'post_type' => 'posts',
    'post__in' => $unique,
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'posts_per_page' => -1
));

if( $posts ) : foreach( $posts as $post ) :
     setup_postdata($post);

     // now use standard loop functions like the_title() etc.     

enforeach; endif;