ACF Custom fields searched using AjaxSearch Pro

[tutorlynkParticipant]

Hello,

I have used Advanced Custom Fields plugin to create custom fields. I am using Gravity Forms to use these custom fields to enable frontend user submission. Now I would like to try and use Ajax Search Pro to search with these custom fields.

The site is still in its early stages and we have lots of test pages so I did not think it would be necessary to send you the URL because it may not make sense. However, I will explain what I have done so far.

We created a Custom Post Type called Phones. Then we created Custom Post Field called:
Company (text field)
Model (text field)
Carrier (text field)

In Gravity forms, we created front end submission form and attached the fields to the custom posts type we created above.

When we publish, everything works. Users in the frontend can enter their phone company, model and carrier and it gets updated in the backend which I can see.

Now the goal is to be able to allow a user to search from the frontend (using AJAX Search Pro). So far, it only allows to search the form itself. However, if there are PHONE entries already with company/model/carrier in the database – I want to be able to search a model.

For example if these are in the database (submitted frontend):
Huawei P9 Koodo
Samsung S8 Koodo
iPhone 6s Verizon

Then if a user searches for “6s” – they should get the third row. Or if they search with “Koodo” – they should get the first and second row.

Can you please show me a step by step on how to achieve this? I have followed the indexing and setting up instructions guide but it does not work.

Thank you very much!

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi,

Without actually seeing it, it’s going to be hard to see where the issue is, but from what I can understand I would recommend the following configuration:

– Using the Regular engine – I don’t think index talbe is neccessary in this case, unless you have like a huge set of phones
– Choosing the Phone custom post type on the General Options -> Sources panel
– ..on the same panel either selecting the the Company, Model and Carrier custom fields – or simply enabling searching all custom fields (faster)

It should look like this: https://i.imgur.com/GxWFuzB.png

Also, for the best compatibility, leave at least the Search in title option enabled, even if you only want to search custom fields: https://i.imgur.com/ix8evFi.png
In some cases there were reports of missing results if only custom fields search was enabled, that should prevent that from happening.

With this configuration you should be able to get results.

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[Author]

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