Search Page
Your search page lives at /opensolr-search and is accessible to all visitors. The plugin registers a custom WordPress rewrite rule so this URL works without creating a page. Here is everything that appears on it and how it works.
The search box
The search box is sticky at the top of the page as visitors scroll through results. It includes:
- A text input where visitors type their query
- A search button to submit
- A clear button (X) that appears when there is a query — click it to reset the search
Searches use GET requests, so every result page has a unique, shareable URL (e.g., /opensolr-search?q=solr+hosting).
Autocomplete
As visitors type, a dropdown appears beneath the search box showing two types of suggestions:
- Query suggestions — popular searches matching what the visitor has typed so far
- Live Solr results — actual matching documents fetched from your index in real time
Autocomplete can be toggled on or off in Search Display settings. Active facet filters are forwarded to autocomplete so suggestions respect the current filter context.
Content tabs
Two tabs appear inside the search box area:
- Web — shows only web pages (HTML content)
- Documents — shows only files (PDFs, DOCX, spreadsheets, etc.)
Switching between tabs preserves your search query and all active filters.
Two-column layout
Search results use a two-column layout on desktop:
- Left sidebar — faceted filters for narrowing results, including list facets, hierarchical drill-down navigation, numeric sliders, and date range pickers
- Right column — the actual search results
On mobile, the sidebar collapses and a Filters toggle button appears to show/hide it.
Active filters bar
When any facet filter is active, a pills bar appears below the search box. Each active filter shows as a removable pill with the field label and selected value. Click the × on a pill to remove that filter. A "Clear all" link removes all filters at once. Field suffixes like _sm or _f are automatically stripped for clean, readable labels.
Search results
Each result shows:
- Title — linked to the original page, with search terms highlighted when highlighting is enabled
- URI breadcrumb — the page favicon and domain followed by the path segments (e.g., example.com › blog › article-title). Long paths are smartly truncated with ellipsis.
- Meta line — contains the AI Read button (if enabled), publication date, and price (if available)
- Snippet — a text excerpt with search terms highlighted in yellow
- OG image thumbnail — the page's Open Graph image, if available and thumbnails are enabled
Results count
A summary line appears above the results, for example: "47 results (0.09 s)". This shows the total number of matching documents and the query time in seconds.
Spellcheck
When enabled in Search Display settings, the search page shows a "Did you mean: ..." suggestion when a query has possible typos or returns very few results. Clicking the suggestion re-runs the search with the corrected query.
Sorting
A dropdown at the top of results lets visitors sort by:
- Relevance (default) — best matches first, based on your tuning settings
- Any facet field — sort by date, price, or any other indexed field
Each sort option supports both ascending (ASC) and descending (DESC) order.
Pagination
Two pagination modes are available (configurable in Search Display):
Classic Pages
Previous/Next buttons with page numbers. Each page has a unique, bookmarkable URL.
Infinite Scroll
New results load automatically as visitors scroll down. A "Load more" button serves as fallback.
AI Hints
When enabled, a purple "AI Hints" button appears above results (available on vector-enabled plans). Clicking it streams an AI-generated answer based on your content. See the AI Features page for details.
Browse mode
By default, the search page shows nothing until someone types a query. If you enable Browse Mode in Search Display, the page shows all results on load — visitors can browse and filter with facets without typing anything.
Dark theme
A theme toggle is available on the search page. Visitors can switch between Light and Dark themes. The selected theme can also be set as the default in Search Display settings. The dark theme uses a dark background with light text for comfortable reading in low-light environments.
Admin-only features
If you are logged in as an administrator, extra controls appear on each search result:
PIN
Pin this result to the top for the current search query. Pinned items show an orange "Pinned" label.
EXCLUDE
Hide this result from the current search query only.
EXCLUDE ALL
Hide this result from all search queries globally.
REMOVE
Remove all elevation rules for this result. Only visible when rules exist for the item.
Pinned results can be drag-reordered using the drag handle on each pinned item (powered by SortableJS). See Query Elevation for details on pinning and excluding.
The plugin automatically takes over WordPress's built-in search. When visitors use any search form or search block on your site, they are redirected to /opensolr-search with their query preserved.