Using next/previous_posts_link with customised search

Question

I have a few different searches on my website:

• "Species profiles" (custom post type search)
• "Glossary" (custom post type search)
• Generic, site-wide search

Currently I'm using search.php; $_POST["type"] to determine which search has been used and and $_POST["s"] for the query term:

<?php
    if (isset($_POST["s"])) {
        $search_term = $_POST["s"];
    }

    if (isset($_POST["type"])) {
        switch ($_POST["type"]) {
            case "profile" :
                $post_type = "species";
                break;
            case "glossary" :
                $post_type = "glossary";
                break;
            default :
                $post_type = array( 'post', 'species' );
                break;
        }
    } else {
        $post_type = array( 'post', 'species' );
    }

    $args = array(
        's' => $search_term,
        'post_type' => $post_type
    );
?>

<?php get_template_part('searchresults'); ?>

This works well enough, however when I then try to use next_posts_link or previous_posts_link, it doesn't work. The URL changes to mywebsite.com/page/2/ and displays a Sorry, you're looking for something that isn't here message as per standard 404 on my site.

---

EDIT I've now updated my code so that it includes $paged as follows (I've also tried changing get_query_var to 'paged' rather than 'page' but it makes no difference):

    $paged = (get_query_var('page')) ? get_query_var('page') : 1;

    $args = array(
        's' => $search_term,
        'post_type' => $post_type,
        'paged' => $paged
    );

However, the same problem is occurring.

---

Here is the code from searchresults.php for @MarkDuncan

<?php global $args; ?>

<?php $query = new WP_Query ( $args ); ?>

<?php if ($query->have_posts()) : ?>

    <?php if ($s) : ?>
        <p class="info">Search results for <em>&#8216;<?php echo $s ?>&#8217;</em></p>
    <?php else : ?>
        <p class="info">Search results:</p>
    <?php endif; ?>

    <?php while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>
        <div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
            <?php
                if (get_post_type() == "species") {
                    get_template_part('list', 'species');
                } else {
                    get_template_part('list', 'index');
                }
            ?>
        </div>
    <?php endwhile; ?>

    <div class="navigation"><?php next_posts_link('&laquo; Previous Entries') ?>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php previous_posts_link('Next Entries &raquo;') ?></div>

<?php else : ?>

    <?php get_template_part( 'notfound' ); ?>

<?php endif; ?>

---

Is there a way of resolving this issue?

Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

You don't need the type variable and other bits of custom search query code, or custom functions like the other answers.

In your searchbox, instead of submitting the form to / submit it to /my_post_type/ instead! WordPress will handle all the rest for you automagically, with no effort involved.

What's more this means all the usual functions will work just as you expected them to!

For example, instead of:

example.com/?type=species&s=giraffe

You can do:

example.com/species/?s=giraffe

Where example.com/species is your custom post type archive page.

And for your Species specific search box:

<form role="search" method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php echo home_url( '/species/' ); ?>">

If you'd like a single searchbox with a choice, you can change the home_url function parameter from '/species/' to '/', then add a dropdown box field whose name is 'post_type' containing the different values you desire e.g.:

<form role="search" method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php echo home_url( '/species/' ); ?>">
    <select name="post_type">
      <option value="">Sitewide</option>
      <option value="species">Species</option>
      <option value="Glossary">Glossary</option>
    </select>

Doing it this way means no custom queries, and no faffing around with variables. All the functionality is provided out of the box by WordPress, and the only extra part you need to do is change your searchbox html!

All the normal wordpress functions on archive pages will now work as expected with no additional steps

You can use the same trick with categories, tags, taxonomies, author and date archives.

So remove the WP_Query in your search templates, and remove the extra code you put above the get_template_part line in search.php, change your search box, and make sure custom permalinks are activated

Answer 2

Because you are using <?php $query = new WP_Query ( $args ); ?> the wp_query global isn't changed (used by next_posts_link).

So you can change the new WP_Query call to just query_posts( $args ); (and change your loop without the $query->).

Or you can overwrite the <?php global wp_query; $wp_query = new WP_Query ( ); $wp_query->query($args); ?> and change your loop accordingly ($quey-> to $wp->query).

If you want to use the original query after your search, you can store it in a temp variable before you alter it global $wp_query; $temp = $wp_query;. After the loop you can do $wp_query = $temp to set it back to the original query.

Answer 3

I would say the fastest way to achieve this kind of link is like that:

function custom_next_comments_link( $label = '', $max_page = 0, $query = array() ) {
    global $wp_query;
    $wp_query = $query;
    echo get_next_comments_link( $label, $max_page );
}

function custom_previous_comments_link( $label = '', $query = array() ) {
    global $wp_query;
    $wp_query = $query;
    echo get_previous_comments_link( $label );
}

And them you would pass as the $query argument using your new WP_Query();

Hope I've helped.