BP Profile Search is a plugin that can integrate an advanced profile search feature into your Members Directory page that searches through all or selected profile fields.
After installing and activating the plugin you will need to go to Dashboard>>Users>>Profile Search to set up your search form by clicking on Add New.
Once you have created the new form you will need to add the fields that you wish to search, this will create your search form as it will be displayed on the Members page. There is a handy option to have one input field that searches all of the BuddyPress Extended Profile fields.
Once you have set up the form there are some other settings for the search that you will need to attend to. You will need to choose if you want to add this page to the Directory (Members Directory).
You might also wish to choose if you want the user to be able to toggle (display) the input form or just display it by default. This is useful when you have a large number of input fields in your search and you wish to hide those fields from cluttering up the members directory until they are needed. There is also the option of the kind of search that is performed – exact match or close match.
Once this new form is saved then it will be displayed at the top of the Members Directory and your members will be able to search all or selected profile fields when they are performing a member search.
An additional feature of the plugin is the shortcode which means you can display the search form on any page or post. Support is also included for member type fields.
Using this plugin I realise that the user needs to know the exact name of the individual they are searching for – the plugin does not include a wildcard or partial search, which I think limits it’s usefulness, after all, if you knew the exact name of the person you are looking for, would you need an advanced search function? The search function does allow you to search for “is like” in the options but it seems this function is pretty limited.
Overall I found this plugin to be reasonably straightforward. It’s a tad over-complicated due to the range of settings each form presents. I give this plugin 9 out of 10 due to the ease that it integrates itself into the members page.
I've been setting up and managing BuddyPress social networks for a few years. I moved from Ning and other platforms and have come to BuddyPress looking to make sites with similar features to them.
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