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Group Live Search Results by Category

Customizing the results display for SearchWP’s Live Search Extension has been designed to facilitate customization in any way you’d like. If, for example, you’d like to group your results by Post Category, you can use this as a starting point in your custom results template:

<?php if ( ! have_posts() ) : ?>
<p>No results</p>
<?php return; endif;?>
<?php
global $post;
$grouped_results = [];
$no_term_results = [];
while ( have_posts() ) {
the_post();
$categories = get_the_terms( $post, 'category' );
// Group by the first Category returned.
if ( ! empty( $categories ) && isset( $categories[0] ) ) {
// If this group doesn't exist yet, create it.
if ( ! array_key_exists( $categories[0]->term_id, $grouped_results ) ) {
$grouped_results[ $categories[0]->term_id ] = [
'term' => $categories[0],
'results' => [],
];
}
// Add this result to the group.
$grouped_results[ $categories[0]->term_id ]['results'][ $post->ID ] = get_post( $post->ID );
} else {
$no_term_results[ $post->ID ] = get_post( $post->ID );
}
}
// Output grouped results.
if ( ! empty( $grouped_results ) ) {
foreach ( $grouped_results as $grouped_result ) {
echo '<h3>' . esc_html( $grouped_result['term']->name ) . '</h3>';
foreach ( $grouped_result['results'] as $result ) {
?>
<div class="searchwp-live-search-result" role="option" id="" aria-selected="false">
<p>
<a href="<?php echo esc_url( get_permalink( $result->ID ) ); ?>">
<?php echo wp_kses_post( get_the_title( $result->ID ) ); ?> &raquo;
</a>
</p>
</div>
<?php
}
}
}
// Output ungrouped results.
if ( ! empty( $no_term_results ) ) {
foreach ( $no_term_results as $result ) {
?>
<div class="searchwp-live-search-result" role="option" id="" aria-selected="false">
<p>
<a href="<?php echo esc_url( get_permalink( $result->ID ) ); ?>">
<?php echo wp_kses_post( get_the_title( $result->ID ) ); ?> &raquo;
</a>
</p>
</div>
<?php
}
}

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