WP Loupe - Enhanced WordPress Search

A powerful search enhancement plugin for WordPress that delivers fast, accurate, and typo-tolerant search results.

Quick Links

Features | Installation | Usage | Settings | FAQ | Filters | Behind the scenes | Changelog | TODO

Overview

WP Loupe transforms WordPress's search functionality by:

• Creating a dedicated search index for lightning-fast results
• Supporting typo-tolerant searches
• Offering phrase matching and advanced search operators
• Automatically maintaining the search index
• Providing customization options for developers

Want to write your own search plugin? Here's a guide to get started: Create a WordPress custom search

Features

Core Features

• 🚀 Enhanced search engine replacing WordPress default
• ⚡ Lightning-fast, precise result delivery
• 🔄 Real-time index synchronization
• 🌐 Support for multiple languages
• 📦 Full custom post type integration
• 📈 Integrated search performance metrics
• ✅ Seamless compatibility with WordPress default themes

Search Capabilities

• 🔍 Typo-tolerant searching
• "..." Phrase matching with quotation marks
• - Exclusion operator support
• 📖 Pagination support

Developer Features

• 🛠️ Extensive filter system
• 📊 Performance monitoring
• 🔧 Customizable indexing

Installation

1. Quick Install

   • Download wp-loupe.zip
   • Upload via WordPress Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin

2. Composer Install

   composer require soderlind/wp-loupe

3. Post-Installation

   • Activate the plugin
   • Go to Settings > WP Loupe
   • Click "Reindex" to build the initial search index

As of version 0.1.4, plugin updates are handled automatically via GitHub. No need to manually download and install updates.

Usage

Basic Search

• Type normally in your search box
• Results are instant and typo-tolerant
• Matches are highlighted in results

Advanced Search Operators

• Hello World will search for posts containing Hello or World.
• "Hello World" will search for posts containing the phrase Hello World.
• Hello -World will search for posts containing Hello but not World.

Settings

You can configure WP Loupe's search behavior and performance via the WordPress admin: Settings > WP Loupe.

General Settings

Post Types

Select which post types to include in the search index.

Field Weight

Weight determines how important a field is in search results:

• Higher weight (e.g., 2.0) makes matches in this field more important in results ranking.
• Default weight is 1.0.
• Lower weight (e.g., 0.5) makes matches less important but still searchable.

Filterable Fields

Filterable fields can be used to refine search results:

• Enable this option to allow filtering search results by this field's values.
• Best for fields with consistent, categorized values like taxonomies, status fields, or controlled metadata.
• Examples: categories, tags, post type, author, or custom taxonomies.

Note: Fields with highly variable or unique values (like content) make poor filters as each post would have its own filter value.

Sortable Fields

Sortable fields can be used to order search results:

• Enable this option to allow sorting search results by this field's values
• Works best with numerical fields, dates, or short text values
• Examples: date, price, rating, title

Advanced Settings

WP Loupe provides advanced configuration options to fine-tune your search experience:

Prefix Search

• Configure prefix search behavior. Prefix search allows finding terms by typing only the beginning (e.g., "huck" finds "huckleberry").
• Prefix search is only performed on the last word in a search query. Prior words must be typed out fully to get accurate results. E.g. my friend huck would find documents containing huckleberry - huck is my friend, however, would not.

Typo Tolerance

• Enable Typo Tolerance: When enabled, searches will match terms with minor spelling errors.
• First Character Double Counting: When enabled, typos in the first character of a word will count as two errors instead of one.
• Typo Tolerance for Prefix Search: Allows typo tolerance in partial word searches.
• Alphabet Size: Define the size of the alphabet for typo calculations.
• Index Length: Configure the maximum length of indexed terms.
• Typo Thresholds: Set the minimum word length required for allowing different numbers of typos.

Query Parameters

• Maximum Query Tokens: Limits the number of words processed in a search query (default: 12).
• Minimum Prefix Length: Sets the minimum character length before prefix search activates (default: 3).

Languages

• Configure which languages the search index should optimize for. Default is English ('en').

These advanced settings can be accessed in the WordPress admin under Settings > WP Loupe > Advanced tab.

FAQ

How does it handle updates to posts?

The search index automatically updates when content is created, modified, or deleted.

Will it slow down my site?

No. WP Loupe uses a separate, optimized search index and doesn't impact your main database performance.

Can I customize what content is searchable?

Yes, using filters you can control exactly what content gets indexed and how it's searched.

Does it work with custom post types?

Yes, you can select which post types to include in the Settings page or via filters.

Filters

wp_loupe_db_path

This filter allows you to change the path where the Loupe database files are stored. By default, it's in the WP_CONTENT_DIR .'/wp-loupe-db' directory.

add_filter( 'wp_loupe_db_path', WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/my-path' );

wp_loupe_post_types

This filter allows you to modify the array of post types that the WP Loupe plugin works with. By default, it includes 'post' and 'page'.

add_filter( 'wp_loupe_post_types', [ 'post', 'page', 'book' ] );

wp_loupe_posts_per_page

This filter allows you to modify the number of search results per page. By default it's 10, set in WPAdmin->Settings->Reading->"Blog pages show at most".

add_filter( 'wp_loupe_posts_per_page', 20 );

wp_loupe_index_protected

This filter allows you to index posts and pages that are protected by a password. By default, it's set to false.

add_filter( 'wp_loupe_index_protected','__return_true' );

wp_loupe_field_{$field_name}

This filter allows you to change the field content before it is indexed.

By default, the following is used to remove HTML tags and comments from post_content. Among others, it removes the WordPress block comments.

add_filter( 'wp_loupe_field_post_content', 'wp_strip_all_tags' );

wp_loupe_schema_{$post_type}

Modify the search schema for a specific post type. The filter name is dynamically generated based on the post type.

// Customize the schema for 'book' post type
add_filter( 'wp_loupe_schema_book', function( $schema ) {
	$schema['book_isbn'] = [		// Add a new field
		'weight'     => 2.0,		// Higher weight means higher relevance in search results
		'filterable' => true,		// Allow filtering by this field
		'sortable'   => [			// Allow sorting by this field
			'direction' => 'asc'	// Default sort direction
		],
	];

	// Modify existing field settings
	$schema['post_title']['weight'] = 3.0; // Increase title weight for books

	// Remove a field
	unset( $schema['post_excerpt'] );


	$schema['book_author'] = [
		'weight'     => 1.5,
		'filterable' => true,
		'sortable'   => [ 'direction' => 'asc' ],
	];

	return $schema;
});

The schema configuration supports the following options for each field:

• weight (float): The relevance weight in search results. Default: 1.0
• filterable (bool): Whether the field can be used for filtering. Default: false
• sortable (array): Sorting configuration with direction key ('asc' or 'desc'). Default: null

Default schema fields:

[
	'post_title'   => [
		'weight'     => 2,
		'filterable' => true,
		'sortable'   => [ 'direction' => 'asc' ],
	],
	'post_content' => [ 'weight' => 1.0],
	'post_excerpt' => [ 'weight' => 1.5 ],
	'post_date'    => [
		'weight'     => 1.0,
		'filterable' => true,
		'sortable'   => [ 'direction' => 'desc' ],
	],
	'post_author'  => [
		'weight'     => 1.0,
		'filterable' => true,
		'sortable'   => [ 'direction' => 'asc' ],
	],
	'permalink'    => [ 'weight' => 1.0 ],
]

Behind the Scenes

This document explains the architecture and technical implementation of the WP Loupe plugin, detailing how it provides fast search functionality for WordPress sites.

Overview

WP Loupe is a search plugin that enhances WordPress's default search with a fast, SQLite-based search engine. The plugin creates and maintains search indexes for WordPress content and intercepts search queries to provide improved results.

Core Components

1. Search Engine

The plugin uses the Loupe search library, which provides:

• Full-text search capabilities
• Typo tolerance
• Fast queries via SQLite

Each post type has its own search index stored in separate SQLite databases:

/wp-content/wp-loupe-db/
  ├── post/
  ├── page/
  └── {custom-post-type}/

3. Component Classes

Factory Pattern

WP_Loupe_Factory creates Loupe instances with appropriate configuration:

• Uses schema information to determine which fields to index, search, filter, and sort
• Processes field weights for relevance scoring
• Configures language and typo tolerance settings

Schema Management

WP_Loupe_Schema_Manager handles search schema configuration:

• Defines which fields are searchable and their weights
• Manages filterable and sortable fields
• Provides a default schema that can be customized via filters

Indexing

WP_Loupe_Indexer:

• Monitors post changes (create, update, delete) to keep the search index current
• Provides bulk indexing functionality
• Transforms WordPress posts into documents that can be indexed

Search

WP_Loupe_Search:

• Intercepts WordPress search queries
• Performs optimized search using Loupe
• Handles pagination and result formatting
• Implements query result caching for improved performance

Key Technical Features

1. Performance Optimizations

• Single-Pass Processing: All field types are processed in one loop for efficiency
• Result Caching: Search results are cached using WordPress transients
• Batch Operations: Bulk indexing uses optimized document batching

2. Database Management

WP_Loupe_DB handles:

• Index file paths and creation
• Index deletion (when necessary)
• Directory structure management

3. Integration Points

• Hooks into WordPress search via posts_pre_query filter
• Monitors post changes via save_post_{post_type} and wp_trash_post actions
• Settings integration via WordPress Settings API

Search Flow

When a user performs a search:

1. WP Loupe intercepts the search query via posts_pre_query
2. The search term is sanitized and prepared
3. The plugin checks the cache for existing results
4. If not cached, the query is sent to the appropriate Loupe instance(s)
5. Results are combined and sorted by relevance
6. The plugin formats results as WordPress post objects
7. Results are cached for future queries
8. The WordPress query object is updated with results and pagination info

Index Maintenance

The plugin automatically:

• Adds/updates documents when posts are published or modified
• Removes documents when posts are trashed
• Provides a manual reindex option in the settings

Admin Interface

The plugin includes a settings page that allows:

• Selecting which post types to include in search
• Triggering a complete reindex of content
• Configuring search behavior (via filters)

Technical Requirements

• PHP 8.2
• SQLite 3.16.0+ (required by the Loupe library)
• WordPress 6.3+

This architecture provides a balance between search quality, performance, and ease of integration with WordPress.

Acknowledgements

• WP Loupe is built upon Loupe. Loupe is licensed under the MIT license.
• The plugin uses Select2 for the post type selection dropdown. Select2 is licensed under the MIT license.
• The plugin uses Yannick Lefebvre's WP Plugin Update Checker for updates. WP Plugin Update Checker is licensed under the MIT license.

Copyright and License

WP Loupe is copyright © 2024 Per Søderlind.

WP Loupe is open-source software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

WP Loupe is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See LICENSE for more information.