Show custom taxonomy terms in autocomplete

FiboSearch displays not only match products in autocomplete but also “non-products” like product categories, tags, and brands if you use a compatible plugin or our custom solution. What if you want to show matching terms from custom taxonomy, e.g. brands, some attributes, books authors, artists, and so on? You can do so using custom snippets.

Table of Contents

• [Example 1] Show “Book Authors” in an autocomplete (custom taxonomy)
  • Step 1 – Register your custom taxonomy in FiboSearch
  • Step 2 – Turn on “Show authors” in the FiboSearch settings
  • Step 3 – Rebuild the search index
  • Step 4 – Let’s see if it works
• [Example 2] Show “Case Pack Size” (product attribute) in an autocomplete
  • Step 1 – Find taxonomy name
  • Step 2 – Make sure your attribute has enabled archives
  • Step 3 – Follow the steps from Example 1
• Support for images

We present 3 examples, which cover different use cases.

[Example 1] Show “Book Authors” in an autocomplete (custom taxonomy)

This example is for an online bookstore, where books are the products and authors are the custom taxonomy. Assume that the name of the custom taxonomy is book_author After following the steps below, users will be shown matching book authors (custom taxonomy terms) in an autocomplete. 

Step 1 – Register your custom taxonomy in FiboSearch

Add the following snippet:

1. Open the functions.php file in your child theme and add the code at the end
2. Or install the Code Snippets plugin and apply this code as a snippet.

Replace book_author with your actual taxonomy name.

add_filter( 'dgwt/wcas/indexer/taxonomies', function ( $taxonomies ) {
	$taxonomies[] = 'book_author';

	return $taxonomies;
} );

Step 2 – Turn on “Show authors” in the FiboSearch settings

Go to WooCommerce → FiboSearch → Autocomplete (tab) The new checkbox called “Show authors” should appear under the section “Non-products in autocomplete”. Check it and save the settings.

Step 3 – Rebuild the search index

After saving the settings, the search index should start rebuilding automatically.

Go to WooCommerce → FiboSearch → Indexer (tab) and rebuild the search index. Wait for this process to finish.

Step 4 – Let’s see if it works

Check if terms from your custom taxonomy show up in an autocomplete. The results should look like this:

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[Example 2] Show “Case Pack Size” (product attribute) in an autocomplete

Attributes in WooCommerce are custom taxonomies, so FiboSearch Pro also can show them in an autocomplete. This is the same as the one described in Example 1. All you have to do is to replace book_author with the taxonomy name of the attribute you want to add to the search.

Step 1 – Find taxonomy name

A taxonomy name of an attribute has the form pa_{attribute_name} In our case, we have an attribute with slug case-pack-size. This means that the taxonomy name is pa_case-pack-size

Alternatively, you can check the URL address when you are on an attribute listing in the WordPress dashboard. Go to WooCommerce → Attributes and go to a specific attribute view. Take a look at the URL address. 

Step 2 – Make sure your attribute has enabled archives

Go to Products → Attributes and click “Edit” below the attribute you want to add to the search. Make sure you have checked the checkbox “Enable archives?”

Step 3 – Follow the steps from Example 1

The next steps are the same as in Example 1. The results should look like this: 

Support for images

If you need support for images, see our other tutorial “How to search for brands?“. This tutorial describes how to integrate your custom brand solutions where the brand is a custom taxonomy. So it’s a very similar example to those described in this article and you can follow the steps. Remember to replace product_brand with your custom taxonomy name.