CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wordpress
fool4jesus
fool4jesus

Reputation: 2226

WordPress is_search() function always false

I want to add some custom conditions and do some other things on a search WordPress results page. So, I’m checking the value of is_search() to make sure I’m only applying the condition at the right time. So in my child theme's functions.php I put:

if (is_search()) {
  ...
}

But this always returns false, even with a url like http://mysite/?s=something and my theme's search.php template is being used! Is this not valid to call from functions.php, or am I misunderstanding this function's purpose?

For that matter, looking at a template hierarchy like presented at https://wphierarchy.com, how does WP even know it’s a search results page? How does it know to proceed down the "search results" path? I’ve spent some time perusing the source code but haven’t been able to find the right spot yet.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 6110

Answers (1)

fool4jesus
fool4jesus

Reputation: 2226

I tried calling is_search() from search.php, and it works! From some more source code perusal, I discovered that you can't call is_search() from functions.php because functions.php is called too early in the process. Apparently functions.php is considered part of the "WordPress library" and is loaded in wp-blog-header.php line 13, while the template is called in line 19.

In between the two is the wp() function, which sets up the query. That query is actually set up in user.php line lines 1198-1212:

$args = array(
    'post_type'      => $this->post_type,
    'post_name__in'  => array( $this->request_type ),
    'posts_per_page' => $posts_per_page,
    'offset'         => isset( $_REQUEST['paged'] ) ? max( 0, absint( $_REQUEST['paged'] ) - 1 ) * $posts_per_page : 0,
    'post_status'    => 'any',
    's'              => isset( $_REQUEST['s'] ) ? sanitize_text_field( $_REQUEST['s'] ) : '',
);
...
$requests_query = new WP_Query( $args );

To answer my second question (how does WordPress know it's a search), it’s as simple as having the "s=" query string parameter. Not sure what to do if you want a search result that does not have a search string (say a custom search based solely on pulldowns or something). If you need that, I would recommend looking thru the source file WP-query.php and seeing exactly what you need to pass. Don’t be scared of looking at the source code; It’s very educational!

Upvotes: 5

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