Custom Search Template in Genesis showing Results grouped by Post Types

Updated on July 23, 2017. Code in search.php has been updated to only show the search result when there is at least 1 matching entry.

A user in Genesis Facebook group asked,

...I want to customize a search results page for a client to show results grouped like:

Article Results

list 5 post/page results or so

Events Results

list 5 CPT events results or so from Events Manager
...

One method in which this can be done is to remove the standard Genesis loop on search result pages and instead add our own which iterates over the specified post types (page, post, recipe etc.) and displays the entries while making sure that we pass the search term to each of the queries.

Step 1

Create a file named search.php in the child theme directory having the following code:

	<?php
	/**
	* Author: Sridhar Katakam
	* Link: https://sridharkatakam.com/
	*/
	remove_action( 'genesis_loop', 'genesis_do_loop' );
	add_action( 'genesis_loop', 'sk_do_search_loop' );
	/**
	* Outputs a custom loop.
	*
	* @global mixed $paged current page number if paginated.
	* @return void
	*/
	function sk_do_search_loop() {
	// create an array variable with specific post types in your desired order.
	$post_types = array( 'recipe', 'page', 'post' );
	echo '<div class="search-content">';
	foreach ( $post_types as $post_type ) {
	// get the search term entered by user.
	$s = isset( $_GET["s"] ) ? $_GET["s"] : "";
	// accepts any wp_query args.
	$args = (array(
	's' => $s,
	'post_type' => $post_type,
	'posts_per_page' => 5,
	'order' => 'ASC',
	'orderby' => 'title'
	));
	$query = new WP_Query( $args );
	if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
	echo '<div class="post-type '. $post_type .'"><div class="post-type-heading">'. $post_type . 's</div>';
	// remove post info.
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_header', 'genesis_post_info', 12 );
	// remove post image (from theme settings).
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'genesis_do_post_image', 8 );
	// remove entry content.
	// remove_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'genesis_do_post_content' );
	// remove post content nav.
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'genesis_do_post_content_nav', 12 );
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'genesis_do_post_permalink', 14 );
	// force content limit.
	add_filter( 'genesis_pre_get_option_content_archive_limit', 'sk_content_limit' );
	// modify the Content Limit read more link.
	add_filter( 'get_the_content_more_link', 'sp_read_more_link' );
	// force excerpts.
	// add_filter( 'genesis_pre_get_option_content_archive', 'sk_show_excerpts' );
	// modify the Excerpt read more link.
	add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more' );
	// modify the length of post excerpts.
	add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'sp_excerpt_length' );
	// remove entry footer.
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_footer', 'genesis_entry_footer_markup_open', 5 );
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_footer', 'genesis_entry_footer_markup_close', 15 );
	remove_action( 'genesis_entry_footer', 'genesis_post_meta' );
	// remove archive pagination.
	remove_action( 'genesis_after_endwhile', 'genesis_posts_nav' );
	// custom genesis loop with the above query parameters and hooks.
	genesis_custom_loop( $args );
	echo '</div>';
	}
	}
	echo '</div>'; // .search-content
	}
	function sk_content_limit() {
	return '150'; // number of characters.
	}
	function sp_read_more_link() {
	return '... <a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink() . '">Continue Reading</a>';
	}
	function sk_show_excerpts() {
	return 'excerpts';
	}
	function new_excerpt_more( $more ) {
	return '... <a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink() . '">Continue Reading</a>';
	}
	function sp_excerpt_length( $length ) {
	return 20; // pull first 20 words.
	}
	genesis();

view raw search.php hosted with by GitHub

Specify the post types that you would like to display search results from - in your desired order in line 18.