How can I replace the search results displayed by Wordpress?

Question

I'm working on a plug-in which will override the search results returned by Wordpress, with results from a custom XML feed. However, I'm not looking to do this on a separate page, but to replace the results Wordpress would normally display on the blogs search page with the results from my XML feed.

I have been unable to find a filter or hook which would allow me to intercept or override the results wordpress returns, nor can I find one which allows me to override what is displayed on the page. My first thought was to look for something similar to the_content, but I'm unable to locate anything similar to that for use in this situation.

The plug-in is going to be used by sales staff, so the plug-in needs to work in such a way that it requires as little work and technical knowledge as possible on the part of installer. My reasoning for wanting to override the results instead of inserting a new widget is that I want the plug-in to use the same search form the theme uses by default.

Is this even possible? If so, how would I go about doing it?

Answer 1

You can use template_include filter hook to check if the current call is a search call and if so include your own template in which you can do what ever you want :

add_filter('template_include','my_custom_search_template');

function my_custom_search_template($template){
    global $wp_query;
    if (!$wp_query->is_search)
        return $template

    return dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/my_search_template.php';

}