The developers behind the BuddyBoss theme shop released a plugin today that has the potential to benefit nearly every BuddyPress social network. BuddyPress Global Search adds a unified search bar, allowing users to search through every BuddyPress component, along with pages, posts, and select custom post types.
Once activated, the plugin turns the site’s WordPress search inputs into a global search, capable of returning results for any of the social content on the site. It also features a live dropdown of results as you are typing.
The plugin’s settings page allows administrators to include or exclude any component or custom post type from the unified search.
The plugin was designed to work with any theme out of the box and should adopt your theme’s styling for BuddyPress search results. However, every theme is different and it may require additional tweaking to get it to perfectly compliment your current design.
I spoke with BuddyBoss founder Michael Eisenwasser, who said that the plugin is his company’s way of giving back to one of WordPress’ sister projects. “I saw Matt at WCSF talking about WP companies giving back 5%, and was inspired to give back to BuddyPress,” he said. “Better search has always been lacking in BP. We built this one because we would use it ourselves on pretty much any site.”
Eisenwasser plans to continue improving BuddyPress Global Search and will add new features based on user feedback. The BuddyBoss team is cooking up a string of free plugins and next on deck is one that will allow users to easily edit BuddyPress activity on the front end.
If you administer a BuddyPress site and want your search results to return content from the social network, this plugin offers a solid option. Download BuddyPress Global Search for free from WordPress.org. Documentation and support can be found on the BuddyBoss website.
Thanks for the write up :) Look forward to more plugins and themes in 2015!