Since revision 342, Textpattern handles searching in a different way. A few people seem to be having problems with this, so here’s a quick howto.

In order for searches to work, there has to be a <txp:article /> tag on the page that’s used to display the results. By default the search input form will use the front page to display searches. If you don’t have a <txp:article /> tag on your front page, the best way to handle searches is to use a separate section to display the results:

1. Create a new page template, named search_page. You can use your standard layout by copying an existing template, but make sure that it includes a <txp:article /> tag. This is the page that will be used to display the results.

2. Create a new section named search (or some other name, if you’d prefer). Uses page should be set to search_page. Selected by default, On front page, Syndicate and Include in site search should all be set to no.

3. On all other page templates where you include a search input form, change the code to point to your new section:

The rev 342 updates allow complete control over the display of the search results. You can use the following tags in your search_results form:

<txp:search_result_title />
<txp:search_result_excerpt />
<txp:search_result_url />
<txp:search_result_date />

..plus all the usual article tags like <txp:excerpt />, <txp:posted /> and so on. And on your search_page template:

<txp:search_result_count />

One thing to be aware of: <txp:search_result_count /> won’t work if it’s placed before the <txp:article /> tag on the page template. That’s because the search is performed by the <txp:article /> tag, so the number of results aren’t known before then. Fortunately, there is a way to overcome this. The pgonly attribute tells the article tag to do all the counts for pagination and search, but not display anything. By using the article tag twice, once with pgonly and once without, we can display the search result count at the top of the list:

<txp:article limit=25 pgonly=1 />
<txp:search_result_count />
<txp:article limit=25 />

The same principle isn’t limited to search results, and applies to pagination tags also. It’s important that both article tags have the same attributes (other than pgonly), otherwise the counts won’t match the list displayed by the second tag.

If you’re displaying search results on your main page, experiment with the <txp:if_search> </txp:if_search> tag. You might also find the <txp:article searchform="mysearchform" /> attribute helpful.

One benefit of the new system is that any pagination tags that work with <txp:article />, such as <txp:older> and <txp:newer>, can be used to page through search results. Set the number of results to display using the <txp:article limit=n /> attribute on your search_page template.