Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions on how to work with the plugin? Looking for tips and tricks? You can look for it here.
I don't see any settings page anywhere! How do I configure Sumo Search?
First, make sure you have Titan Framework installed. Second, head over to Appearance > Customize to access the settings for Sumo Search.
Do I need Visual Composer for this plugin to work?
Nope. The only prerequisite plugin you need to have is Titan Framework. The Titan Framework is responsible for the appearance of Sumo Search's settings.
How to integrate my existing Search Button with Sumo Search?
In most themes, Sumo Search will automatically detect your search button and hook into the search functions without further actions needed by the user. If you already have a search button in your site and Sumo Search doesn't detect it, you can help Sumo Search catch the click actions performed on your button from the settings.
Go to your Customizer, then Sumo Search > Settings and in the setting for Selector for Existing Search Buttons, enter a Javascript selector for your search button.
If you don't know what a Javascript selector is, you'll need to open your developer console for this one. Visit your site, then right click on your button, in the toolbar that opens, click on "Inspect element". Your dev console will open and highlight the html code for your search button.
If your search button looks like this (this is what the theme Twenty Fourteen search button looks like):
<div class="search-toggle">
Enter the value .search-toggle (include the dot)
You will know if the value you entered is correct if clicking on your search button opens Sumo Search.
Can I add filters in my search page?
Certainly! Filters and hooks will help you customize the behavior of Sumo Search.
I want shortcodes rendered in the results! How do I do that?
Create a filter and its pertinent function targeting 'sumo_perform_search' and apply do_shortcode to its results. Similarly, you can also remove shortcodes using this method, but running strip_shortcodes function instead. If you want shortcodes in general to be parsed in excerpts, there are plugins in the WordPress repository that you can use for that.
I want results of Sumo Search to cover only certain post types! How do I do that?
There are two methods to achieve this. As of version 1.2, you can do this through the Search Post Type settings, where you can select all post types or not make a selection, in which case it will search from all public post types. The other is through the filter 'sumo_search_args', where you can make even more changes to the query, such as number of results, taxonomies, exclusions and more. The filter uses the same arguments as WP_Query for more flexibility.
Sumo Search makes my Theme Customizer not work!
Update your copy of Sumo Search, as that behavior was a known issue introduced in WordPress 4.7. Sumo Search version 1.2 onwards resolve this issue.
Can Sumo Search work even in multisites?
Yes! Configuration for Sumo Search if Network Activated takes place in the Theme Customizer, just like single sites and individually-activated sites.
I want Sumo Search to return full posts and not excerpts! How do I do that?
Sumo Search now has settings that does exactly that. Make sure your full content looks presentable in the search results. Otherwise, post excerpts are always the preferred output.
Sumo Search returns full posts in certain search results! But it is configured to return excerpts only!
Make sure those posts does have an excerpt, as they will return an abridged version of the content or the entire content itself if the post does not have an excerpt.
Can I display other kinds of post meta other than post content or excerpt in Sumo Search?
The combination of results filters and custom functions may be your best shot at making such result content possible, but please be reminded Sumo Search works best with the standard WordPress content. The builtin WP_Query function in WordPress is not designed to return custom meta, but can be modified through filters to do so.