Listing wordpress users with a search function

Question

I'm having trouble finishing off this code that I adapted from Cosmoslabs excellent tutorial. Everything is working (listing and pagination etc) except the search function whic is returning nothing i.e. no users are listed when I try to filter by a keyword.

Can anyone see what the problem might be?

Thanks for any pointers.

Osu

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: WP Author Listing
Plugin URI: #
Description: Simple shortcode to list our WordPress users.
Author: OSU
Version: 1.0
Author URI: #
Licence: MIT

Many thanks for original plugin by: Cristian Antohe [http://cozmoslabs.com/]

*/

function osu_user_listing($atts, $content = null) {
    global $post;

    extract(shortcode_atts(array(
        "role" => '',
        "number" => '5'
    ), $atts));

    $role = sanitize_text_field($role);
    $number = sanitize_text_field($number);

    // We're outputting a lot of HTML, and the easiest way 
    // to do it is with output buffering from PHP.
    ob_start();

    // Get the Search Term
    // (condition) ? (true return value) : (false return value)
    $search = ( isset($_GET["as"]) ) ? sanitize_text_field($_GET["as"]) : false ;

    // Get Query Var for pagination. This already exists in WordPress
    $page = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

    // Calculate the offset (i.e. how many users we should skip)
    $offset = ($page - 1) * $number;

    if ($search){
        // Generate the query based on search field
        $my_users = new WP_User_Query( 
            array( 
                'role' => $role, 
                'search' => '*' . $search . '*' // Assuming the problem is around here?
            ));
    } else {
        // Generate the query 
        $my_users = new WP_User_Query( 
            array( 
                'role' => '', // Default is all
                'offset' => $offset ,
                'number' => $number
            ));
    }


    // Get the total number of authors. Based on this, offset and number 
    // per page, we'll generate our pagination. 
    $total_authors = $my_users->total_users;

    // Calculate the total number of pages for the pagination
    $total_pages = intval($total_authors / $number) + 1;

    // The authors object. 
    $authors = $my_users->get_results();
?>

    <div class="author-search">
    <h2>Search authors by name</h2>
        <form method="get" id="sul-searchform" action="<?php the_permalink() ?>">
            <label for="as" class="assistive-text">Search</label>
            <input type="text" class="field" name="as" id="sul-s" placeholder="Search Authors" />
            <input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" id="sul-searchsubmit" value="Search Authors" />
        </form>
    <?php 
    if($search){ ?>
        <h2 >Search Results for: <em><?php echo $search; ?></em></h2>
        <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Back To Author Listing</a>
    <?php } ?>

    </div><!-- .author-search -->

<?php if (!empty($authors))  { ?>
    <ul class="author-list">
<?php
    // loop through each author
    foreach($authors as $author){
        $author_info = get_userdata($author->ID);
        ?>
        <li>
            <?php echo get_avatar( $author->ID, 90 ); ?> 
            <h2><a href="<?php echo get_author_posts_url($author->ID); ?>"><?php echo $author_info->display_name; ?></a> - <?php echo count_user_posts( $author->ID ); ?> posts</h2>
            <p><?php echo $author_info->description; ?></p>
            <?php $latest_post = new WP_Query( "author=$author->ID&post_count=1" ); 
            if (!empty($latest_post->post)){ ?>
            <p><strong>Latest Article:</strong>
            <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($latest_post->post->ID) ?>">
                <?php echo get_the_title($latest_post->post->ID) ;?>
            </a></p>
            <?php } //endif ?>
            <p><a href="<?php echo get_author_posts_url($author->ID); ?> ">Read <?php echo $author_info->display_name; ?> posts</a></p>
        </li>
        <?php
    }
?>
    </ul> <!-- .author-list -->
<?php } else { ?>
    <h2>No authors found</h2>
<? } //endif ?>

    <nav id="nav-single" style="clear:both; float:none; margin-top:20px;">
        <h3 class="assistive-text">Post navigation</h3>
        <?php if ($page != 1) { ?>
            <span class="nav-previous"><a rel="prev" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>page/<?php echo $page - 1; ?>/"><span class="meta-nav">&lt;</span> Previous</a></span>
        <?php } ?>

        <?php if ($page < $total_pages ) { ?>
            <span class="nav-next"><a rel="next" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>page/<?php echo $page + 1; ?>/">Next <span class="meta-nav">&gt;</span></a></span>
        <?php } ?>
    </nav>


    <?php 
    // Output the content.
    $output = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();


    // Return only if we're inside a page. This won't list anything on a post or archive page. 
    if (is_page()) return  $output;

}

// Add the shortcode to WordPress. 
add_shortcode('userlisting', 'osu_user_listing');
?>

Answer 1

This worked for me.

$user_query = new WP_User_Query( array(  'search' => '*example.net*', 'search_columns' => array('user_url') ));
$authors = $user_query->get_results();

The wild card to be used in the search string is '*' and not '%'. Also you have to include the 'search_columns' parameter with the following possible values

search_columns = array( 'user_nicename', 'user_login', 'user_email', 'user_url' )

Importantly, these are the actual field names from the users table. I tried my above mentioned query using 'search_columns' => array('url') and it failed.

Answer 2

I'll extend my comment. From the codex, it seems to me, that your might be missing also search_columns param. So not only replacing

'search' => '*' . $search . '*'

by

'search' => '%' . $search . '%'

But also possible adding

search_columns = array( 'nicename', 'login', 'email' ) 

See the codex: https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_User_Query#Search_Parameters