Possible to search by author name with default WordPress search function?

3 comments

1. Maybe you can try adding your condition directly in the query string, using something like this

   function wpse_29570_where_filter($where){
           global $wpdb;
           if( is_search() ) {
               $search= get_query_var('s');
               $query=$wpdb->prepare("SELECT user_id  FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE ( meta_key='first_name' AND meta_value LIKE '%%%s%%' ) or ( meta_key='last_name' AND meta_value LIKE '%%%s%%' )", $search ,$search);
               $authorID= $wpdb->get_var( $query );
   
               if($authorID){
                   $where = "  AND  ( wp_posts.post_author = {$authorID} ) ";
               }
   
            }
            return $where;
       }
   
       add_filter('posts_where','wpse_29570_where_filter');
   

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2. I couldn’t get either of those answers to work for me, but I found this:
   https://danielbachhuber.com/2012/02/07/include-posts-by-matching-authors-in-your-search-results/

   Worked without any edits. Here’s the code incase the link is ever out of date:

       /**
    * Include posts from authors in the search results where
    * either their display name or user login matches the query string
    *
    * @author danielbachhuber
    */
   add_filter( 'posts_search', 'db_filter_authors_search' );
   function db_filter_authors_search( $posts_search ) {
   
       // Don't modify the query at all if we're not on the search template
       // or if the LIKE is empty
       if ( !is_search() || empty( $posts_search ) )
           return $posts_search;
   
       global $wpdb;
       // Get all of the users of the blog and see if the search query matches either
       // the display name or the user login
       add_filter( 'pre_user_query', 'db_filter_user_query' );
       $search = sanitize_text_field( get_query_var( 's' ) );
       $args = array(
           'count_total' => false,
           'search' => sprintf( '*%s*', $search ),
           'search_fields' => array(
               'display_name',
               'user_login',
           ),
           'fields' => 'ID',
       );
       $matching_users = get_users( $args );
       remove_filter( 'pre_user_query', 'db_filter_user_query' );
       // Don't modify the query if there aren't any matching users
       if ( empty( $matching_users ) )
           return $posts_search;
       // Take a slightly different approach than core where we want all of the posts from these authors
       $posts_search = str_replace( ')))', ")) OR ( {$wpdb->posts}.post_author IN (" . implode( ',', array_map( 'absint', $matching_users ) ) . ")))", $posts_search );
       return $posts_search;
   }
   /**
    * Modify get_users() to search display_name instead of user_nicename
    */
   function db_filter_user_query( &$user_query ) {
   
       if ( is_object( $user_query ) )
           $user_query->query_where = str_replace( "user_nicename LIKE", "display_name LIKE", $user_query->query_where );
       return $user_query;
   }
   

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3. Improving on @hacksy’s answer, I have used the same block of code but changing it to successfully search company name using the WP Job Manager plugin.

   function add_author_to_search($where) {
       global $wpdb;
       if( is_search() ) { // Check if a search is made
           $search = get_query_var('s');
           $like = '%' . $wpdb->esc_like( $search ) . '%';
           $query = $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT user_id FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE ( meta_key='first_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' ) OR ( meta_key='last_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' ) OR ( meta_key='_company_name' AND lower(meta_value) LIKE '%%%s%%' )", $search, $search, $search);
           $authorID = $wpdb->get_var( $query );
   
           if ($authorID) { // If a user_id matches a user
               $where .= " OR " .$wpdb->posts. ".post_author = {$authorID} AND " .$wpdb->posts. ".post_name LIKE '" .$like. "'"; // Add to query of function: $GLOBALS[$WP_QUERY_VAR]->request
           }
        }
        return $where;
   }
   
   add_filter('posts_where','add_author_to_search');
   

   What it does is search the meta_key column of the first_name, last_name, and _company_name values then check for a value under the meta_value to see if it matches the search query. If a user_id is found, the SQL search query is appended to search for the post_author ID and if the slug of the company is found under the post_name column.

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