Possible to search by author name with default WordPress search function?

Question

I realize improving WordPress's search function is a huge can of worms, but the ONLY additional thing I need it to do is to show results when I search for an author's name.

For example, if we have an author named Katie Johnson, and I search for Katie, I get results where her name is listed in the CONTENT, but not results that she POSTED.

This seems like a simple problem, and yet I haven't yet found a solution to it.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Maybe you can try adding your condition directly in the query string, using something like this

function wpse_29570_where_filter($where){
        global $wpdb;
        if( is_search() ) {
            $search= get_query_var('s');
            $query=$wpdb->prepare("SELECT user_id  FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE ( meta_key='first_name' AND meta_value LIKE '%%%s%%' ) or ( meta_key='last_name' AND meta_value LIKE '%%%s%%' )", $search ,$search);
            $authorID= $wpdb->get_var( $query );

            if($authorID){
                $where = "  AND  ( wp_posts.post_author = {$authorID} ) ";
            }

         }
         return $where;
    }

    add_filter('posts_where','wpse_29570_where_filter');

Answer 2

I couldn't get either of those answers to work for me, but I found this: https://danielbachhuber.com/2012/02/07/include-posts-by-matching-authors-in-your-search-results/

Worked without any edits. Here's the code incase the link is ever out of date:

    /**
 * Include posts from authors in the search results where
 * either their display name or user login matches the query string
 *
 * @author danielbachhuber
 */
add_filter( 'posts_search', 'db_filter_authors_search' );
function db_filter_authors_search( $posts_search ) {

    // Don't modify the query at all if we're not on the search template
    // or if the LIKE is empty
    if ( !is_search() || empty( $posts_search ) )
        return $posts_search;

    global $wpdb;
    // Get all of the users of the blog and see if the search query matches either
    // the display name or the user login
    add_filter( 'pre_user_query', 'db_filter_user_query' );
    $search = sanitize_text_field( get_query_var( 's' ) );
    $args = array(
        'count_total' => false,
        'search' => sprintf( '*%s*', $search ),
        'search_fields' => array(
            'display_name',
            'user_login',
        ),
        'fields' => 'ID',
    );
    $matching_users = get_users( $args );
    remove_filter( 'pre_user_query', 'db_filter_user_query' );
    // Don't modify the query if there aren't any matching users
    if ( empty( $matching_users ) )
        return $posts_search;
    // Take a slightly different approach than core where we want all of the posts from these authors
    $posts_search = str_replace( ')))', ")) OR ( {$wpdb->posts}.post_author IN (" . implode( ',', array_map( 'absint', $matching_users ) ) . ")))", $posts_search );
    return $posts_search;
}
/**
 * Modify get_users() to search display_name instead of user_nicename
 */
function db_filter_user_query( &$user_query ) {

    if ( is_object( $user_query ) )
        $user_query->query_where = str_replace( "user_nicename LIKE", "display_name LIKE", $user_query->query_where );
    return $user_query;
}

Answer 3

Improving on @hacksy's answer, I have used the same block of code but changing it to successfully search company name using the WP Job Manager plugin.

function add_author_to_search($where) {
    global $wpdb;
    if( is_search() ) { // Check if a search is made
        $search = get_query_var('s');
        $like = '%' . $wpdb->esc_like( $search ) . '%';
        $query = $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT user_id FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE ( meta_key='first_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' ) OR ( meta_key='last_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' ) OR ( meta_key='_company_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' )", $search, $search, $search);
        $authorID = $wpdb->get_var( $query );

        if ($authorID) { // If a user_id matches a user
            $where .= " OR " .$wpdb->posts. ".post_author = {$authorID} AND " .$wpdb->posts. ".post_name LIKE '" .$like. "'"; // Add to query of function: $GLOBALS[$WP_QUERY_VAR]->request
        }
     }
     return $where;
}

add_filter('posts_where','add_author_to_search');

What it does is search the meta_key column of the first_name, last_name, and _company_name values then check for a value under the meta_value to see if it matches the search query. If a user_id is found, the SQL search query is appended to search for the post_author ID and if the slug of the company is found under the post_name column.