Only show specific post type in search result if referrer is certain page

For further context, we have a global, all-results Algolia search (autocomplete) in our site’s header, which sits across all pages.

We have a secondary Algolia autocomplete which sits inside the Collections archive page, which only brings results back from the collections post type – this is all working exactly as intended.

My question, however, relates to the standard WordPress search results page which appears when hitting ENTER inside the search input field (essentially site.co.uk/?s=SEARCH_QUERY). It is this page that I only want to show results from the collections post type when someone hits ENTER on the secondary Collections-only search input field and, when they search via the standard search input in the header, the normal operation of showing hits from all results should be displayed.

Good day

A couple things I’m noticing that may or may not help out here.

1. In the pre_get_posts callback that WP Search with Algolia uses, it checks for a ?post_type=thing parameter and if that’s present, it’ll only search with that post type. So, assuming that the form in question has a method of get, then I think even just adding this to the form would change that behavior to match

<input type="hidden" name="post_type" value="collections" />

2. Alternatively, worth trying to add your own pre_get_posts callback with a lower priority, like 11 and just manually setting the post type yourself. Only drawback to this one would be finding a way to determine which search form it came from, and globals like $_GET or $_REQUEST may be needed.

That said, I think the first option is sounding more promising.

Hi @tw2113, thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

I can confirm that your first suggestion worked perfectly – amazed it was such a simple, one-line fix, that’s saved me a massive potential headache.

Thanks for your help, happy to close this one off now.

It’s actually a trick that comes from WP core and how they can handle things. WP Search with Algolia codebase just happens to retain it with the code behind the scenes and for the requests to the Algolia API.