Ajax search pro is the best live search engine plugin for WordPress. Highly customizable, with many features and options, giving the best results possible! Replace the WordPress search bar with a better looking, more efficient search engine.
Ajax Search Pro for WordPress – A WordPress live search plugin
Ajax Search Pro for WordPress was designed to boost the user search experience to the maximum. It provides a live ajax search, which makes the wordpress search experience more confortable. The results are presented with images (if any found), so they look more attractive and less flat. The search works with mobile devices, let it be Android or IOS powered. The search can override the default wordpress search results – so the ajax functionality is extended – replace your default theme search with only a click of a button. The search can return posts, custom post types (like WooCommerce products, BBPress forums, topics, replies), Categories, custom taxonomy terms (like product categories), users, buddypress gorups and buddypress activities as results.
More than 60 colorful, fully customizable themes will save you time with the CSS hussle, so you can focus more on the presentation.
The backend offers hundreds of options for those, who like to customize the search to the maximum. Many features were implemented based on customer feedbacks, and even more coming soon.
As of version 4.0, the plugin officially supports Visual Composer as well – so in addition an Ajax Search Pro Visual Composer addon is included within the plugin.
The plugin is updated regulary based on customer feedbacks and bug reports. Every support ticket is answered within 48 hours, usually in 12 hours (except for weekends).
Ajax Search Pro for WordPress features
MANY CONTENT TYPES SUPPORTED
The search supports posts, pages and any kind of custom post type.
WooCommerce, Jigoshop, wp-Ecommerce and many other plugins use custom post types – so they are all compatible with Ajax Search Pro.
FRONTEND SEARCH SETTINGS
The plugin provides a customizable frontend settings interface for users. By ticking a few checkboxes the user can change the
behaviour of the plugin – like looking for exact matches, including/excluding certain post types, categories or custom taxonomies (like product categories)
LAYOUT & THEMES
Four built-in layouts: Vertical, Horizontal, Polaroid and Isotopic.
60+ pre-defined theme for each layout, including the ones on the demo page.
WIDGETS & SHORTCODES
Three different widget are provided (latest searches, top searches and search box) and two shortcodes for each search. Shortcode buttons are also visible on the post editor.
IMAGE SUPPORT
The search has built in libraries with extreme compatibility for image handling. They can parse through content, excerpt, custom fields
or just simply display the featured image.
ICONS
Use the variety of high resolution, vectorized and colorizable svg icons or upload your own if you want to.
ADJUSTABLE SEARCH LOGIC
You can change the search logic to fit your needs. By default the plugin works with an OR logic to provide higher amount of results. If you however need more strict results, you can change this with a click. More info in the documentation search logic section.
SMART IMAGE PARSING
Highly adjustable image parser ensures to show the best quality images in the results. The plugin can scan the featured, content, excerpt custom field for images.
CATEGORY, TAG & TAXONOMY TERM FILTERS
Create and manage category, tag and any taxonomy term filters. Checkboxes, drop-downs and radio button layouts are all supported.
CUSTOM FIELD FILTERS
For even more sophisticated layout you can create custom field filters, to give your users more advanded ways to search your content.
MULTISITE SUPPORT
Having a multisite network? You can select which blogs you want to include in each individual search instance. You can search multiple blogs at the same time.
RELEVANCE SEARCH & INDEX TABLE
A fully configurabe relevance options panel is provided for those, who like to fine-tune their plugins. You can switch to index table search and create indexes for even more relevant results.
VISUAL COMPOSER SUPPORT
As of version 4.0 the search acts as a Visual Composer add-on as well. You can easily manage the search instances via the Visual Composer plugin.
COMPACT LAYOUT MODE
No place on your site for the search widget? You can hide the search bar until the user clicks on the magnifier icon.
KEYWORD SUGGESTIONS & AUTOCOMPLETE
Google keyword suggestions and autocomplete is enabled by default. The suggestions language is changeable.
KEYWORD HIGHLIGHTING
The search phrase can be highlighted in the results list. You can change the color of the highlighting as well.
INDEX TABLE ENGINE
Plugin version 4.5 introduces a new, index table powered search engine. This engine is capable of indexing shortcode content, for sites built with composer plugins. It’s also a huge performance saver for high traffic sites.
PERFORMANCE TRACKER
Track the search query performances with the simple, built in performance tracker. It will help you optimize the search ajax speed.
SEARCH STATISTICS
By enabling the search statistics will give you an insight on which phrases are the most popular on your website.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS INTEGRATION
With a push of a button you can integrate google analytics to the search, so the phrases will show up as pageviews on your analytics dashboard.
CACHE
For websites with higher traffic caching is provided to reduce the database queries and increase the search performance.
COMPATIBILITY
Compatibility options will provide you a quick fix interface in case something is not working properly.
PERFORMANCE TRAKING
The plugin will track the query performances and give you a better insight on your recent setting changes.
EXPORT AND IMPORT
Want to use a working search instance on your other project? Export the search settings and import them to your other site. Easy as that.
REGULAR UPDATES
The plugin recieves updates on a monthly basis, many customer requests and suggestions had been fulfilled in the past – feel free to suggest anything
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
We are taking customer support very seriously. You can expect a reply within 24 hours during workdays. To open a support ticket, go to this link.
Check the full changelog here.
As of version 4.5 the plugin provides index-table search capabilities including:
By default the plugin uses the Regular search engine, but you can change it anytime on the search General Options page.
Check the index table engine section of the documentation for more information about the index table engine.
You don’t need to worry about touching the code and loosing all the changes with upgrades. The search is packed with hooks for the most convenient access. (the lists are located at the action.txt and filters.txt files as well as in the documentation) No frustration = faster coding.
Version History v4.9.5 - 2016.08.18 Added: - Importing/Exporting themes is now possible - Searching/Indexing permalinks is now possible - New themes: Round - Polylang compatibility for custom post type content Fixed: - Textarea inputs now support special characters, including HTML - Polylang string translations - Frontend options margin fixes - Shortcode builder elements layout fixes - Font name fixes, related to importing search instances Changed: - Social box on search instance options panel v4.9.4 - 2016.08.04 Added: - WooCommerce search form override - Search all custom fields option - Redundant (window.load) initialization added for maximum compatibility Fixed: - Back-end text inputs now handle special characters - Index table "New index" button fix on repetitive press - Minor code logic fixes - Frontend CSS rule fixes - Image minification function fix to return originals on failure - Search form override priority fixes Changed: - New option to input search statuses, old options removed - Dynamic init method data is now stored as div attribute instead of content (crawler bot friendly) - Vertical and Horizontal results images are redirecting to results, even if not the whole area is clickable - Scrollbar script checks for existence before init Version 4.9.3 - 2016.07.01 Added: - Shortcode Generator - JS API + events API - Settings items layout option (flex, column, masonry) - New shortcode wd_asp supporting ratios - Two new mobile related options Fixed: - Some filter and action fixes - Keyword exception bugfix Changed: - Options checkboxes are changed to font elements Version 4.9.2 - 2016.07.01 Added: - Google Places API integration Fixed: - Export-import script URL fix - Removed old IE8-9 CSS - Theme chooser fix - Taxonomy Exclusion bugfix - Double backslash fixes on back-end scripts - Search cache issue fix - Missing product variation from non-ajax results - Phrase escaping fix for non-ajax search - Search in post IDs fixed for empty phrases - "More results" ajax calculation fix - Term hierarchy generator fix - Custom CSS printing bugfix - Statistics page fixed Changed: - NouiSlider update to latest version Version 4.9.1 - 2016.06.18 Fixed: - Index table update notification fix - New taxonomy selector: checkbox fix, get_terms() deprecated fix - Numerous fixes for selector classes - Fixed an upload PATH variable - Blog search: checks if is_multisite() first - WPML string translation fix for category header boxes - Category exclusions fix Version 4.9.0 – 2016.06.13 Added: - New category and taxonomy term filter options - New grouping options - Search box alignment option - ASP_Query wrapper class to use as search API - User related exclusions - Date custom field filter now supports timestapm and MySQL datetime formats - Post type filters re-worked: supporing drop-down and radio layout mode Fixed: - Inline CSS parsing fix - Better script loading on back-end - A session related bug - Removed all ctype library requirements - An unknown issue with page exclusions - Box position and width fix for low width cases - An auto scrolling issue Changed: - Menu structure and permalinks changed to readable formats - Custom field slider and range slider decimal options - An old image cache library is removed Version 4.8.3 – 2016.03.25 Added: - Search in post IDs is possible - Autocomplete for mobile is adjustable Fixed: - An issue with mobile detection and handling - Taxonomy selectors now allow private taxonomies - CSS permission related issue fixes - Search options memorization across paginated results - Header already sent error fix Version 4.8.2 - 2016.03.17 Added: - Automatic plugin updates! - New mobile related options - A meta box to adjust suggested phrases per post basis - Memorizing selected front-end options when doing a non-ajax search - Switchable srcript initialization method - Mobile swipe support for Isotopic and Polaroid layout for paging Fixed: - Index table issues: better word boundary detection, custom field indexing problems, ordering problems, WooCommerce product variation indexing - Custom field filtering issues when using the AND logic between fields - Auto populate bugfixes - Better special character handling and search - Image detection fixes regarding custom fields Changed: - Removed deprecated functions - Removed unused options - Fixed file writing detection Version 4.8.0 - 2016.02.22 Added: - Empty search bar is supported (setting 0 character triggering) - It is possible to set column count and width for front-end settings boxes - Post date and custom field (ACF) date filtering is now possible - Excluding or including posts by date was added - The loader can be chosen to be displayed in the results box - Auto-poulating search results on page loading is now possible - Hiding the search bar and displaying settings only is now possible - An ajax page change detection script was implemented Fixed: - Term filtering related issue, when all terms selected, did not display CPM from other categories, even though they are not excluded - Empty link issues on "more results" link - Font importing issues fixed - An empty border fix for isotopic results - A category grouping bug fix - Download Monitor plugin compatibility fix - A scrollbar issue fix on front-end selectors - Fixed a bug with user roles exclusions Changed: - Complete re-work of the core files, into a much better and safer structure. - A better method for processing hidden custom fields - Keyword suggestions now check substrings on no matches - It is now possible to create multiple custom field filters for the same custom field Version 4.7.0 - 2016.01.15 - Filtering by post tags is possible - It is possible to replace the default theme search now - Override now returns any type of result - BuddyPress XProfile fields search - Keyword exceptions menu on Advanced Options - Isotope layout gutter between items is adjustable now - Backend Options search added - Image Display mode is now changeable - Custom field filters with empty values are discarded now correctly Changed: - UI fix when facet change is activated, the settings won't close - Horizontal results are much more appealing - Custom field filters use much less data for communication - Default options moved to globals - Back-end default loading performance enhancement Fixed: - Isotopic calculation fix for no-image items - "Try this" CSS fixed - Issue with category filter default values - Removed arbitrary calculations with horizontal results - Keyword highlighting fixed - More results link fix - A Visual Composer ajax bugfix - Fixed missing values when importing search settings - Context display performance fix Version 4.6.0 - 2015.11.27 Added: - Primary, Secondary sorting option added - Conditional CSS loader script added (experimental) - More animation options on Advanced Options panel - An adjustable background overlay for Compact mode (fixed layout) Fixed: - Missing translation ID fixes for both engines - Placeholder text position fix - Input margin, padding fixes - Incorrect top calculation added for relative positioned body elements - Override default WP results group fix, and post_types array fix Changed: - Theme parser, moved to JSON data - SVG spinners removed due to deprication, NEW CSS3 spinners - Animations re-worked to full CSS3 with fallback - Animations CSS file is only used for dynamic CSS parser, reducing size over 90 per cent Version 4.5.5 - 2015.11.05 Added: - Index table continue button and small stats snippet - Index table specific relevance options - Customizable date format - Added a filter to shortcodes taxonomy get_terms() call - New image source: post format images Fixed: - Index table author related bug fix - Fixed placeholder alignment Changed: - Removed polaroid script classie and modernizr dependency - Escaping method changes - Index table search apostrophe removal - Index table adjusted first word relevance Version 4.5.4 - 2015.10.27 Added: - Theme Loader added - Text type custom field added to custom field selectors - Isotopic navigation: supports large number of pages, slides back-forth - Index table engine CRON possibility - Result template files can be stored in the theme folder Fixed: - Index table: timeout fix, WPML fix, reversed term fix - Preview mode fix - A typo fixed in results_layout.php: user_login - Global multibyte (mbstring) function fixes - Results override function fix - OR checkbox logic fix - Keyword suggestion fixes: multisite support, wrong autocomplete in some cases - Horizontal result fix: no results text incorrectly appearing Changed: - Vertical results: Date and author are hidden by default now - Vertical results: Navigation fix, return button redirects to result - Index table improvements: does not store indexed documents in an array Version 4.5.3 - 2015.09.28 Added: - New initialization wrapper, type.wrapper.js instead of inline scripts - Display content as context around the search phrase Fixed: - imageradio.class.php fixed a selection error where the plugins url is different - Fixed a WPML bug, where the post editor shows an error - More results link now doesn't show if there are no results at all Changed: - The ajaxsearchpro localized variable changed to ASP - The scripts are now loaded to the footer - Custom field selector initializator moved to the main script file - Better content parsing for the image parser Version 4.5.2 - 2015.09.21 Added: - Index table added an option to replace dash-like chars - Attachment term, caption search - Buddypress user search option removed - Redirect click and enter to first matching result Fixed: - Reverse search phrase property - Keyword double-escape fix - Index table floating issue, limit adjustment fic - Redirect click and enter bug fixed, where the ajax method won't stop - Isotopic bugfix, where the content wont slide down Version 4.5 - 2015.08.11 Added: - A new feature and engine: Index table search engine - User search is now possible - Attachment search is now possible - Search text button - Back-end category parent,child chooser - Input focuses on compact mode opening - Keyword suggestions and autocomplete sources: taxonomy terms and CPM - WooCommerce term image integration - Hidden input field type for custom field selectors - Exclusion of parent-child pages is now possible - Added a Help and Updates menu for more information - Dynamic strings are now translatable with WPML string translations - Update Notifications on the plugins menu Changed: - Major query optimizations for better performance - Adjustable author field for CPT results - Input box converted to flex display - Google autocomplete ajax migrated to JS - Custom field and Category selector output limit increased - WPML respects term translations - CSS files re-ordered - Some CSS classes changed with prefixes - Optimized some theme line heights - JS resize and scroll event optimizations - Better attempt on closing unclosed HTML tags in content - Result images are displayed as background images for better compatibility - Select item colorization and width changes - On multisite it is now possible to select all blogs with a checkbox Fixed: - Compact mode scrolling fixes - WooCommerce product variation URL fix - File system api instead of furl_open - Stylesheet fixes - Back-end JS optimizations - Better input escaping - Margin, padding override fixes - Vertical results box height calculation fix - WMPL compatibility with custom ajax handler - Keyboard navigation fix for vertical results - Fix a script exclusion for IE<9 - Multiselect custom post type selector fix - A rev-slider compatibility bugfix - Non-ajax pagination fix - Widget compatibility for WP4.3 Removed: - Fulltext search is replaced with Index Table engine 2015.03.18 - 4.0 - Major update Added: - Visual composer addon included - New menu: Export/Import settings - you can export all your search instances, or individual instance settings - New menu: Performance Tracking - track the search performance on your dashboard - New Shortcode: Two column shortcode - A search and a result box next to each other - Compact Layout Mode - on fixed, absolute and static page positions - Full RTL support - Result templating is now possible - each result type has it's own template file - More options with Keyword suggestions and Autocomplete (post titles, tags) - It is now possible to rename/duplicate search instances - Better control over Javascript and CSS compatibility and size - Excluding categories and terms from category results is now possible - Search can be triggered on a Facet change (checkbox, slider, radio button...) - Individual result groups (terms, posts, buddypress results, etc..) can be ordered now. - Query Compatibility Options - You can fine tune the search query to force application level Unicode and UTF8 searches - Results now can be redirected to a new browser tab Changed: - Vertical results now support automatic height and the result image is surrounded with the description - Relevance is now less performance dependent - The ajax request now returns plain HTML instead of JSON (because of templating) Fixed - A possible security issue on the backend - Massive CSS compatibility fixes - ABSPATH variable removed 2014.11.27 - 3.5 - Major update Added: - Priority settings -> prioritizing results is now possible - Custom Frontend Fields -> Creation of Radio buttons, Dropboxes, Checkboxes, Range sliders connected with custom fields - Advanced Ajax Page Loader plugin compatibility options - Suggested keywords -> "Try these:" as seen on the demo Changed - CSS files for search instances had been removed and replaced with a concatenated single CSS file - TimThumb removed and BFI image class had been added as main image handler Fixed - CSS incompatibilities - Known JS bugs - Isotopic layout is now more stable 2014.10.07 - 3.2 - Major update Added: - It is possible to change the search logic now: OR, OR with exact words, AND, AND with exact words - Categories and taxonomies can be returned as results Changed - In Old internet explorer versions the search falls back to the default wordpress search box - Fixed a bug with the cache - Fixed a bug with the widget 2014.09.19 - 3.1 - Minor update Added: - The plugin can now override (replace) the default WordPress search results on the results page! - BuddyPress support: Search in groups, users and activities - The 'More results..' and the default results URL is now customizable Changed - Polaroid results fix for new chrome browsers - Custom ajax handler is now disabled by default due to some incompatibilities - The title search relevance has changed a bit - Fulltext search is disabled by default - Buddypress bugs fixed 2014.08.04 - 3.0 - Major update Added: - New latout type: Isotopic - 2 New theme groups: Underline and Simple - New retina ready SVG icons - WPML support - Google Analytics Integration module - Brand new backend - Scroll-to-results option - Keyboard navigation for vertical results - Multiple instances of search boxes are now possible - Better preview - Better compatibility module Changed: - Shortcode buttons on the Post editor - Better image options and image handling - Smaller CSS files - Better javascript compatibility 2014.03.12 - 2.4 - Major update Added: - Fulltext search capabilities - Fulltext indexing the posts table (post_title, post_content, post_excerpt) Changed: - A few bugs in the suggestions code 2014.03.06 - 2.3 - Minor changes Added: - Polaroid styled results (experimental) - Shortcodes now strippable from results - Now supports pages with categories Changed: - Some Buddypress/Nextgen compatibility issues solved 2014.02.18 - 2.10 - Minor/Performance changes - Much better relevance sorting! - Overall performance rework – much faster ajax results - TimThumb available for faster image loading - Compatibility settings added – Inline styles and Non-minified javascript - Cache options reworked + Better image precache 2014.01.10 - 2.00 - Major update !!!Important - Older version users, please delete your search instances and the plugin before installing!!! Added: - Search relevance with adjustable weights - Results filtering by custom taxonomies - Horizontal results - Result list placement to custom element via shortcode - Hooks - Filters & Actions added, full list in documentation Changed: - Frontend layout - Many changes here * The frontend options bar can be set to left/right * Vertical/Horizontal result list * Better mobile device compatibility (tap/search button on keyboard) * Color change on result hovering * Better scrollbar * Search box height changeable * Search box margin changeable - Backend rework - better - Themes reworked - +~40 new options on the backend - Backgroung gradient tool - Faster cache, better image cache - Nicer icons, better theme configurations - Better compatibility - ~50% less javascript - ~3x load performance 2013.05.21 - 1.81 - Minor Update - exact matches fix - some fixes on admin area - widget code fix 2013.05.08 - 1.80 - Major Update - 11 new themes - Admin page fix - Caching, precaching - Better images - iPhone fix 2013.04.16 - 1.70 - Major Update - Error check module - Css fixes - Shortcode running in search result content - Strip tags - Better search on BBPress forums 2013.04.16 - 1.65 - Minor Update - menu structure fix - blog titles search added 2013.02.13 - 1.60 - Major Update - 9 new minimal themes - minify fix, works with mobile - mobile typing fix - Search: custom fields as title and desc, multisite grouping fix 2013.02.07 - 1.50 - Major Update * Category selectors on the frontend * Category/Post type filtering * Search in comments * Exclude posts by id's or categories * Stable, custom built jQuery for maximum compatibility * Better search algorithm 2012.12.13 - 1.40 - Major Update * Multisite support * Better admin interface, ajax powered * Autocomplete with statistics or google keywords * Touch device fixes * Possible enable/disable the triggering events 2012.12.13 - 1.30 - Major Update * WordPress 3.5 support * Show more results link added 2012.11.22 - 1.25 - Minor Update * jQuery outerheight fix * qTranslate support 2012.11.21 - 1.2 - Major Update * Search Statistics * Search in custom fields * 2 new widgets - Last searches and Top searches * Default Search Text option added * Compatibility issues fix (with older versions of jQuery ui) * Faster image parsing * Better keywords parsing 2012.11.14 - 1.1 - Major Update * Buddypress Support added (search in groups, forums, users) * Search term highlighting on the frontend * Custom post types supported * New custom post type selector on the backend * Translation support for frontend selectors * Language selector for google keyword suggestions * The whole item area is now clickable 2012.11.07 - 1.01 - Error reporting issue fixed.