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Disable Search

Author: Scott Reilly
Version: 1.8
First released: 2009-06-11
Last update: 2020-06-03
Compatibility: WP 4.6 – 5.4.2
Download: [ zip ]
Description:

Disable the built-in front-end search capabilities of WordPress.

Extended Description

This plugin prevents WordPress from allowing and handling any search requests from the front-end of the site. Specifically, this plugin:

  • Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses the standard get_search_form() function to display the search form.
  • Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses a searchform.php template
  • Prevents the search item from appearing in the admin tool bar when shown on the front-end.
  • Disables the search widget.
    • Removes the Search widget from the list of available widgets
    • Deactivates any search widgets currently in use in any sidebars (they are hidden, not deleted; they’ll still be in the proper locations if this plugin gets deactivated)
  • With or without the search form, the plugin prevents any direct or manual requests by visitors, via either GET or POST requests, from actually returning any search results.
  • Submitted attempts at a search will be given a 404 File Not Found response, rendered by your site’s 404.php template, if present.
  • Disables output of SearchAction in SEO schema by the Yoast SEO plugin.

The plugin only affects search on the front-end of the site. It does not disable searching in the admin section of the site.

Links: Plugin Homepage | Plugin Directory Page | GitHub | Author Homepage

Find out more at the plugin’s WordPress Plugin Repository page.

Installation

  1. Install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer. Or download and unzip disable-search.zip inside the plugins directory for your site (typically wp-content/plugins/)
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Will this disable the search capabilities in the admin section of the blog?
A. No.

Q. Will this prevent Google and other search engines from searching my site?
A. No. This only disables WordPress’s capabilities with regards to search.

Q. Why do I still see a search form on my site despite having activated this plugin?
A. The most likely cause for this is a theme that has the markup for the search form hardcoded into one or more of the theme’s template files (excluding searchform.php). This is generally frowned upon nowadays (the theme should be calling get_search_form() or using searchform.php to get the search form). There is no way for this plugin to prevent this hardcoded form from being displayed.
However, even if this is the case, the form won’t work (thanks to this plugin), but it will still be displayed.

Q. Is this plugin GDPR-compliant?
A. Yes. This plugin does not collect, store, or disseminate any information from any users or site visitors.

Q. Does this plugin include unit tests?
A. Yes.

Release Log

1.8 (2020-06-02)

  • New: Disable output of SearchAction in SEO schema by Yoast SEO. Props @galengidman.
  • New: Add TODO.md and move existing TODO list from top of main plugin file into it (and add to it)
  • Change: Use HTTPS for link to WP SVN repository in bin script for configuring unit tests
  • Change: Note compatibility through WP 5.4+
  • Change: Update links to coffee2code.com to be HTTPS
  • Unit tests:
    • New: Add tests for hooking actions and filters
    • New: Add test for backend searches not being affected
    • Change: Remove unnecessary unregistering of hooks and thusly delete tearDown()

1.7.2 (2019-12-12)

  • Change: Note compatibility through WP 5.3+
  • Change: Unit tests: Change method signature of assertQueryTrue() to match parent’s update to use the spread operator
  • Change: Update copyright date (2020)

1.7.1 (2019-06-17)

  • Unit tests:
    • Change: Update unit test install script and bootstrap to use latest WP unit test repo
    • New: Test that the plugin hooks plugins_loaded for initialization
  • Change: Note compatibility through WP 5.2+
  • Change: Add link to CHANGELOG.md in README.md

Copyright & Disclaimer

Copyright © 2009-2020 by Scott Reilly (aka coffee2code)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Discussion / Support

Have any questions, comments, or suggestions? Please provide them via the plugin’s WordPress.org support forum. I’ll do my best to reply in a timely fashion and help as best I can.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide guaranteed support, nor do I provide support via any other means.

Was this plugin useful useful to you? Consider giving it a rating. If you’re inclined to give it a poor rating, please first post to the support forum to give me a chance to address or explain the situation.

3 replies on “Disable Search”