Filter WordPress Search Results by One or More Post Types

By default, performing a search on a WordPress website will search through everything; all pages, posts, and any custom posts types that have been created. I came across a scenario earlier however where I wanted to exclude pages from the search and filter the results by multiple custom post types.

To be honest I struggled to find the solution immediately so wanted to explain how you can filter by one or more post types. For both of the explanations below I will explain how this can be achieved by editing the search form, or by editing the themes functions.php file.

Note: For information on creating a search form see this link:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_search_form

Filter Search Results by a Single Post Type

Search Form

<form method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>">
	<input type="text" class="field" name="s" id="s">
	<input type="hidden" class="field" name="post_type" id="post_type" value="movies">
	<input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Search' ); ?>">
</form>

functions.php

function SearchFilter($query) 
{
	if ($query->is_search) 
	{
		$query->set('post_type', 'movies');
	}
	return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'SearchFilter');

Filter Search Results by Multiple Post Types

Search Form

<form method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>">
	<input type="text" class="field" name="s" id="s">
	<input type="hidden" class="field" name="post_type[]" id="post_type" value="movies">
	<input type="hidden" class="field" name="post_type[]" id="post_type" value="photos">
	<input type="submit" class="submit" name="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Search' ); ?>">
</form>

functions.php

function SearchFilter($query) 
{
	if ($query->is_search) 
	{
		$query->set('post_type', array('movies', 'photos'));
	}
	return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'SearchFilter');

So there we have it. By using an array we can filter the search results by two or more post types.