Welcome to the ProofMEDIA Search Plugin User Manual. This guide will help you understand how to use and configure the plugin for your WordPress site.
Introduction
The ProofMEDIA Search Plugin is a production-ready, secure search plugin for WordPress. It includes custom post type selection, live AJAX search, and a customizable shortcode to display the search bar anywhere on your site.
How to Use the Shortcode
The plugin uses a shortcode to render the search bar on any page, post, or widget area. A shortcode is a small snippet of code that WordPress replaces with dynamic content when a page is viewed.
The Shortcode
The shortcode for this plugin is:
[proofmedia_sp_search]Adding the Shortcode
To add the search bar to your site, simply copy the shortcode above and paste it into the editor of any page or post. If you are using the Gutenberg block editor, you can add a “Shortcode” block and paste it there.
Settings
You can configure the plugin’s behavior by going to the ProofMEDIA Search menu in your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Settings. From there, you can choose which post types to search, the number of results per page, and whether to enable live AJAX search.
Why not use the built-in WordPress search?
Two reasons: 1) it’s not built in to all installations or themes, 2) it doesn’t have an ‘as you type’ response. The ProofMEDIA search starts searching and displaying results as soon as 3 or more characters are entered giving the user a far better experience (you can try it out and see it in action at the top of this page).