Init Live Search – Smart, Slash Commands, REST API

Deliver an ultra-responsive search experience to your visitors — no page reloads, no jQuery, no lag. Init Live Search is a modern, lightweight, and fully accessible live search solution for WordPress — now with tag-aware matching, SEO metadata support, ACF integration, WooCommerce product filters, and customizable UI presets. It replaces the default <input name="s"> with a clean, intuitive search modal powered entirely by the WordPress REST API. Everything loads in real-time — with zero disruption to browsing flow. Perfect for content-heavy blogs, WooCommerce stores, or even headless sites. Every interaction is fast, fluid, and designed to work across devices. This plugin is part of the Init Plugin Suite — a collection of minimalist, fast, and developer-focused tools for WordPress. GitHub repository: https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-live-search

1.7.6 – June 30, 2025

• Improved [init_live_search_related_posts] shortcode:
• Added post_type parameter to filter related results by one or more post types
• Accepts single value (post_type="post") or multiple values (post_type="post,page,product")
• Supports any registered post type (e.g. post, product, manga, etc.)
• Fully compatible with all templates (template="...") and theme overrides
• Enhanced internal search logic:
• post_type now resolved from both post_type (string or comma-separated) and post_types (array) in $args
• Ensures accurate filtering for related content across multiple content types

1.7.5 – June 26, 2025

• Enhanced [init_live_search_related_posts] shortcode
• Added template parameter to switch between multiple layouts:
• default: Row layout with thumbnail on the left (existing)
• grid: Responsive grid with large image and title
• classic: Headline with excerpt (blog style)
• compact: Plain text list
• thumbright: Title and date with thumbnail on the right
• All templates fully overrideable via theme using:
• init-live-search/related-posts-{template}.php
• Auto-fallback to default if template not found
• Improved internal keyword cleaning logic:
• Removes all non-letter/number characters (including emoji, punctuation, Unicode dashes like –)
• Ensures clean and reliable matching for related post detection
• Added auto-insert option for related posts (after content, before/after comments)
• Can be enabled via plugin settings
• Uses default shortcode [init_live_search_related_posts count="10"]

1.7.4 – June 25, 2025

• Added optional support for + and - search operators
• +keyword: must include
• -keyword: must exclude
• Added new shortcode: [init_live_search_related_posts]
• Display SEO-friendly related posts with static HTML
• Auto-detect post title or use keyword param
• Uses internal search logic (no REST or JS)
• Fully themable via init-live-search/related-posts.php
• Optional css="0" param to disable default styles
• Optional schema="0" to disable JSON-LD ItemList output

1.7.3 – June 19, 2025

• Refactored to true async search rendering (no more blocking)
• Primary results render instantly, cross-site results stream in later
• Fixed: loader now hides even when only remote results are shown
• Fixed: "no result" only appears when all sources are empty

1.7.2 – June 16, 2025

• Added Shortcode Builder support
• Visual builder now available for [init_live_search] shortcode
• Accessible via admin UI with icon, input, label, and style configuration
• Supports dynamic shortcode preview, one-click copy, and instant insert
• Fully localized with customizable labels via wp_localize_script()

1.7.1 – June 14, 2025

• Massive WooCommerce slash command expansion
• Added /brand, /attribute, /variation, and /coupon support
• /coupon returns active, usable coupons with usage info and expiration
• Fully compatible with custom taxonomies and pa_... attributes
• Improved /price slash command
• Now supports optional sort / rsort keywords
• Full backward compatibility
• Cross-site search refinement
• Automatically disables single-word fallback on both source and remote sites for cleaner results
• New [init_live_search] shortcode
• Allows inserting a search icon or input anywhere, with custom classes and optional dark mode

1.7.0 – June 11, 2025

• Added Cross-site Search
• New setting: enter multiple domains (Site Name|https://example.com/)
• Fetches & merges results from other Init Live Search sites
• Results are labeled (e.g. “Init Docs”) for clarity
• No auth or CORS setup needed – just works

1.6.9 – June 8, 2025

• Added Synonym Expansion system for smarter search matching
• New “Synonyms” tab in settings with live JSON editor and helper UI
• Define site-specific vocabulary mappings like {"reaction": ["tương tác", "phản hồi"]}
• Auto-inject or update keyword-synonym pairs via UI button or Enter key
• Full JSON validation with inline error messages and form guard
• Enhanced search logic with intelligent synonym fallback
• When no or few results are found, synonyms are auto-expanded and re-queried
• Synonym results are scored lower than direct matches but included for better coverage
• Works seamlessly with all search modes (title, tag, excerpt, ACF, SEO, etc.)
• New toggle setting: "Enable Synonym Expansion?"
• Allows enabling/disabling the synonym logic without affecting mappings
• Disabled by default for performance-conscious setups

1.6.8 – June 7, 2025

• Added support for multi-term filtering in /tag and /category slash commands (AND logic)
• Added /trending slash command using real-time trending data from Init View Count
• Excluded "Media" (attachment) from selectable post types in settings for cleaner configuration
• Removed tracking of user_id and source for simpler and privacy-friendly analytics
• Optimized internal query limits by adapting to the configured result count (no longer hardcoded to 200)

1.6.7 – June 4, 2025

• Internal refinements for long-term maintainability and performance
• Unified duplicate language detection logic (detect_language → detect_lang)
• Cleaned up legacy utility functions and applied clearer naming conventions
• Standardized logic for excerpt highlighting, thumbnail fallback, and WooCommerce integration
• Enhanced admin keyword generator (modal default input)
• Improved bi-gram extraction from post titles
• Added locale-aware stop word filtering (Vietnamese, English)
• Now generates up to 7 randomized high-signal keywords for better UX
• Stabilized and extensible codebase
• All core modules are modular, reusable, and optimized for extensibility
• Future development will focus on expanding slash command support and developer experience
• Improved JavaScript hook support for slash commands
• Developers can now reliably use ils:search-started to render custom commands from themes or plugins

1.6.6 – May 31, 2025

• Major fallback upgrade: added intelligent single-word fallback logic
• Automatically breaks long queries into single words if no results found
• Matches each word as full term only (e.g. sea won't match search)
• Each match is scored and weighted for relevance
• Improved result ranking with weight-based merge
• Dynamically ranks fallback results based on number of keyword hits
• Prioritizes stronger matches while still showing broader coverage
• SEO-aware fallback reuse
• Reuses existing SEO meta fields (title + description) in fallback queries
• Controlled by setting and init_plugin_suite_live_search_seo_meta_keys filter
• Full refactor: fallback logic moved to search-core.php
• Improves code maintainability and separation of concerns
• Paves the way for future optimizations like partial streaming

1.6.5 – May 30, 2025

• Introduced intelligent 1-line excerpt for all search results
• Automatically extracts a short snippet containing the search keyword from excerpt or content
• Falls back to get_the_excerpt() if no relevant match is found
• Keyword is highlighted within the snippet
• Mobile-optimized: excerpt is displayed as a single line with ellipsis (-webkit-line-clamp: 1)
• Fully integrated into existing REST API output
• Improved relevance ranking for title_excerpt and title_content modes
• Weighted scoring: title > excerpt > content
• Refactored result handler logic into modular subroutines
• Improves readability, performance, and extensibility

1.6.4 – May 30, 2025

• Enhanced slash command system and developer API
• Finalized init_plugin_suite_live_search_commands filter logic
• Register custom commands and handle them via JS events
• Added ils:result-clicked custom event
• Fires on result click with full metadata payload (id, url, type, etc.)
• Optimized voice search engine
• Language detection from <html lang> with fallback map
• Improved error handling and auto-stop logic
• Mic UI toggle and sessionStorage keyword injection

1.6.3 – May 29, 2025

• New slash commands: /day, /week, /month (requires Init View Count plugin)
• Fully supports infinite scroll and REST API for high-traffic sites
• Improved dynamic command registration
• Added search history commands: /history, /history_clear

1.6.2 – May 28, 2025

• New feature: Default Slash Command on Modal Open
• Preload /recent, /related, /popular, etc. based on page context
• Includes “Smart Detection” mode
• Plugin-aware slash command detection
• Only shows /popular, /read if supporting plugins are active
• Improved settings validation and injection prevention

1.6.1 – May 28, 2025

• Added Search Analytics panel (Analytics tab in settings)
• Log keyword search queries (term, result count, time, source, user ID)
• Stored via transient-based chunk system
• Exportable to CSV
• Improved tracking logic
• Ignores empty and slash-only queries
• Excludes structural commands like /recent, /fav
• Renamed tracking file: analytics.php → tracking.php
• Better nonce protection and UX polish

1.6.0 – May 27, 2025

• Added frontend UI presets:
• style-full.css: fullscreen overlay
• style-topbar.css: fixed top bar (like Spotlight)
• Theme override support: use init-live-search/style.css in theme
• Option to disable plugin CSS entirely
• Internal CSS loader refactor

1.5.4 – May 27, 2025

• Added SEO metadata search support (no AI)
• Search within SEO Title and Meta Description
• Compatible with Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework
• New filters for developer control:
• init_plugin_suite_live_search_seo_meta_keys
• init_plugin_suite_live_search_weights

1.5.3 – May 27, 2025

• ACF search field support (define keys in admin)
• Multilingual enhancements
• Supports Polylang, WPML
• Language-aware filters and queries
• New developer filters:
• init_plugin_suite_live_search_filter_lang
• init_plugin_suite_live_search_category_taxonomy
• Performance: improved ACF join + status filtering

1.5.2 – May 26, 2025

• New search mode: Init Smart Tag-Aware Search
• Combines title and tag matches
• Auto bi-gram fallback for short terms
• Tooltip Quick Search now works on single-word selections

1.5.1 – May 26, 2025

• Added WooCommerce slash commands:
• /product, /on-sale, /stock, /sku, /price
• Display product data: price, sale badge, stock, add-to-cart
• Visual indicators: “Sale”, “Sold Out”
• Infinite scroll and smart SKU/price filtering
• Enhanced keyboard nav in result list

1.5.0 – May 25, 2025

• Quick Search tooltip (2–8 words selection)
• Support for data-ils attribute to trigger modal
• Favorite management via /fav, /fav_clear commands
• Toggle favorite from results list
• Unified modal trigger logic
• Optimized state handling

1.4.3 – May 24, 2025

• Lazy modal init (only creates DOM on trigger)
• New JS events:
• ils:modal-opened, ils:modal-closed, ils:search-started, ils:results-loaded
• Improved keyboard nav and accessibility
• Scroll logic optimized for large result sets

1.4.2 – May 24, 2025

• Enhanced slash command dropdown (/re...)
• Added ?modal=search&term=... URL trigger
• Option to disable all slash commands
• UI/keyboard refinements

1.4.1 – May 23, 2025

• Added advanced slash commands:
• /related, /read, /random, /categories, /tags, /help, /clear, /reset
• /read integration with Init Reading Position
• Internal command result caching with localStorage
• Fully internationalized commands
• Refactored JS modules

1.4.0 – May 23, 2025

• Introduced full slash command system
• /recent, /popular, /tag, /category, /date, /id
• Smart /date parsing
• REST-powered, cached results
• Modal trigger options: Ctrl + /, triple-click, focus
• Unified query parser

1.3.0 – May 22, 2025

• Added modal triggers:
• Ctrl + /, triple-click
• Client-side category filter
• Post type badge in results
• UI: input clear button, dropdown polish
• Refactored codebase, namespacing

1.2.0 – May 20, 2025

• Voice input (SpeechRecognition API)
• New settings: fallback toggle, CSS toggle, dark mode
• Developer filters added for full control

1.1.0 – May 18, 2025

• Trimmed + bigram fallback logic
• Remembers last search via sessionStorage
• Enforces 100-char input limit
• Caching, UTM, dark/light theme options

1.0.0 – May 17, 2025

• First stable release
• Modal-based search via REST API
• Fully keyboard accessible
• Inline fallback + suggestions
• Support for manual and auto-generated keyword suggestions
• Lightweight Vanilla JS, no jQuery