Feature request: live AJAX search and suggestions and other search enhancements

Beta
#1

A logical feature enhancement to improve search across CS Forms search fields and the native search element.

  • show search suggestions as the user starts typing
  • show alternative related search phrases based on what the user types
  • show the last couple of searches the user performed (when logged in?)
  • provide options to tailor the search engine to a specific post type, taxonomy, custom fields, PDF contents, and other factors. This would allow you to create any number of search engines for specific needs
  • highlight exact search matches in search results
  • allow to apply custom weights to the various search factors to tailor the results rankings
  • Search stats and analytics to see what your visitors are searching for and whether they found the content they needed

Maybe some of these could be developed in a separate premium extension? CS Forms basically competes with FacetWP and other premium form plugins, and these search features would challenge search plugins like SearchWP.

2 Likes
#2

Much of this means adding features from FacetWP and Relevanssi which provide all this now. I agree it would be good, but it’s a lot of work for ThemeCo.

1 Like
#3

Part of me thinks Forms could handle this right now, but it also might be better suited for a standalone element. I’ll have to take a deeper and add the feature request to our system. Have a great day.

2 Likes
#4

Thanks for considering these features. No matter which route you take, it would be very nice to have some or all of them.