Results showing from excluded categories

Anonymous

#818

Hi,

I have excluded 3 categories from my search form. This works in that the excluded categories are not shown on the form, but if I type in a keyword from a post in an excluded category, it still shows up in the search results. Is this correct or is there anything else I can do to stop a post from an excluded category appearing in the search results?

Thank you

Ross Moderator

#821

Hey Ellen

Currently there is no way to define “defaults” for the form to use except for post types..

I do plan on adding this in at some stage, but for now you will have to use pre_get_posts hook in order to modify your query (place this in your functions.php):

function exclude_category( $query ) {
	global $sf_form_data;
	
    if ( $sf_form_data->is_valid_form() && $query->is_main_query() )
	{
        $query->set( 'cat', '-2' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

You’ll see in there is $sf_form_data->is_valid_form() – this tells us we are on a S&F search form so to only modify the query then.

This statement will affect all search & Filter forms however, so if you are using more than one form on your site you will need some more conditional statements.. let me know if this is the case?

Thanks

Anonymous

#823

Many thanks – I’ll try that. I do only have one S&F form. Actually I would quite like to exclude the 3 categories from the WordPress search as well if that were possible – should I omit the $sf_form_data->is_valid_form() bit for that? No problem if that’s not possible though.

Anonymous

#824

Sorry if I’m being thick but do I also need to add my category IDs to exclude? I have 3 of them. thanks.

Ross Moderator

#825

Hey Ellen

To exclude categories by ID you need to list them (sorry I wasn’t clearer) here:

$query->set( 'cat', '-2' );

This removes categories with the id of 2. The minus number means “exclude”. If you want multiple categories then comma separate them:

$query->set( 'cat', '-1,-23,-8' );

And yeah to make the categories disappear from all main queries then remove that line. There was one problem with my example actually – I needed to add an is_admin check – so the full code for you would be something like:

function exclude_category( $query ) {
	global $sf_form_data;
	//if ( $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin() ) - use this line instead to exclude cats from all queries
    if ( $sf_form_data->is_valid_form() && $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin() )
	{
        $query->set( 'cat', '-2,-4,-10,-6' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' );

Hope that helps!

Anonymous

#828

Works perfectly – thank you for super-quick reply too 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ross Moderator

#829

😀

Anonymous

#2697

Hi Ross, cool plugin.

What would be the best way to achieve this if my site is using multiple forms like you mentioned?

Ross Moderator

#2707

Hey Joe

I’m going to have to do some tests… Can you open a new ticket for this?

Thanks

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