How to create custom search result page with custom URL parameters for custom post type?

Question

So I guess the question is : How do I define new page/url to which I can pass custom parameters, do a search for custom post type and pass the results to custom template for rendering?

I have made a custom post type Apartment. Apartments have occupied dates recorded in the database and I want users to be able to search for free apartments between two dates.

I know how to do the search algorithm but I don't know what is the best way to define a new search page with custom parameters in WordPress.

And I'd also like to avoid writing the search algorithm in the template file if possible.

URL should look something like this:

• mysite.com/find/begin-date/end-date
• concrete example : mysite.com/find/2018-03-05/2018-03-10

But it is also OK if it looks something like this as well:

• mysite.com/find?begin=2018-03-05&end=2018-03-10

Answer 1

Add this code in functions.php

function custom_rewrite_rule() {

    //Initializing Rewrite Tags
    add_rewrite_tag('%begin-date%', '([^&]+)');
    add_rewrite_tag('%end-date%', '([^&]+)');
    add_rewrite_tag('%offset%', '([^&]+)');

    //Find page rewrite rules
    add_rewrite_rule('^find/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/?','index.php?page_id=<SEARCH_PAGE_ID>&begin-date=$matches[1]&end-date=$matches[2]&offset=$matches[3]','top');
    add_rewrite_rule('^find/([^/]*)/([^/]*)/?','index.php?page_id=<SEARCH_PAGE_ID>&begin-date=$matches[1]&end-date=$matches[2]','top');

    flush_rewrite_rules();
}
add_action('init', 'custom_rewrite_rule', 10, 0);

On your custom search page template

$begin_date = get_query_var('begin-date');
$end_date   = get_query_var('end-date');
$offset     = get_query_var('offset') ? get_query_var('offset') : 1;

Create a page having slug find and apply a custom page template over it .. replace <SEARCH_PAGE_ID> with the newly created page ID and update the permalink structure!

Use these values in your custom query in the page template! :)

This code will render the URL as per your desired structure!

• mysite.com/find/begin-date/end-date
• mysite.com/find/begin-date/end-date/offset (if you need pagination to be enabled)

---

In case you want the second option .. you can simply use the following code over your find page template and everything will work!

$begin_date = $_GET['begin'];
$end_date   = $_GET['end');
$offset     = $_GET['page'] ? $_GET['page'] : 1;

• mysite.com/find?begin=2018-03-05&end=2018-03-10
• mysite.com/find?begin=2018-03-05&end=2018-03-10&page=2