Powerful Search for
Modern WordPress Sites
Role-based access control, custom field support, smart prefix filters, and a beautiful tabbed results UI — all in one lightweight plugin.
Everything You Need, Nothing You Don't
A carefully crafted search plugin that respects WordPress conventions, security best practices, and your users' time.
Strict Access Control
Search results respect user roles automatically:
- Public users — published content only.
- Authors — their drafts + all published posts.
- Editors/Admins — see everything including private & future.
Deep Search
Goes beyond title matching to search:
- Custom Fields (post meta) — great for SKUs & codes.
- Taxonomies — categories and tags alongside posts.
- Excerpt & content — native WordPress search.
Smart Prefixes
Power users can narrow results instantly:
post: wordpress— search posts & pages only.tag: tutorial— search tags only.category: news— search categories only.
Rich Tabbed UI
Results are organized and beautiful:
- Tabs — Posts, Categories, Tags separated cleanly.
- Thumbnails — featured images shown inline.
- Status badges — Draft, Private, Published at a glance.
High Performance
Built to stay fast at scale:
- AJAX-powered — no page reload needed.
- Zero external dependencies or bloat.
- SQL-level
DISTINCTguard prevents duplicate results.
Easy Integration
Multiple ways to embed the search widget:
- Shortcode:
[plusmagi_search]anywhere. - Gutenberg Block — native editor support.
- Full WP REST API endpoint for headless use.
Interactive Search Preview
This is a static UI demo. Visit the developer site to see it live.
Install in Under 2 Minutes
Upload & Activate
Download the plugin zip and upload it to
Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin in your WordPress admin. Then click
Activate Plugin.
/wp-content/plugins/plusmagi-search/
Add the Shortcode
Place the shortcode in any page, post, or widget area. The search widget will appear automatically.
[plusmagi_search]
Optional: Use the Block Editor
Search for "PlusMagi Search" in the Gutenberg block inserter. Drag and drop onto your page — no shortcode needed.
/wp-json/plusmagi-search/v1/search?term=hello
You're Live!
Your secure, advanced search is now active. Roles are automatically enforced — no configuration required.
Plugin Details
| Version | 1.0.0 |
|---|---|
| Stable Tag | 1.0.0 |
| Requires WP | 5.8 or higher |
| Tested Up To | 6.9 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 or higher |
| License | MIT |
Tags
Contributors
P phunsanitFrequently Asked Questions
Yes. The results are styled via CSS which you can override in your theme's
style.css or any custom CSS plugin. The plugin uses the selector
#plusmagi-search-wrapper as the root, so overrides are scoped and clean.
Yes — completely free and open source under the MIT License. Use it in personal or commercial projects with no restrictions.
The plugin checks WordPress user capabilities on every search request via the REST API. Guests see only published content. Authors see published content plus their own unpublished posts. Editors and Admins see all post statuses. This logic is enforced server-side — it cannot be bypassed from the frontend.
Version 1.0.0 searches post and page post types by default.
Support for custom post types is planned for a future release. In the meantime,
developers can use the REST API endpoint directly with custom parameters.
Yes. The plugin exposes a public REST endpoint at
/wp-json/plusmagi-search/v1/search?term=your+query that any client can
consume. Authentication via the WP REST nonce is supported for role-aware results in
headless setups.
Changelog
Initial Release 🎉
- AJAX-powered frontend search widget.
- Role-based access control (Public / Author / Editor / Admin).
- Custom field (post meta) search via JOIN filter.
- Smart prefix search:
post:,tag:,category:. - Tabbed results UI (Posts, Categories, Tags).
- Featured image thumbnails in results.
- Gutenberg block registration.
- WP REST API endpoint:
/plusmagi-search/v1/search. - Zero external runtime dependencies.