Meilisearch Network Search for WordPress

Replace WordPress default search with Meilisearch across your entire multisite network with automatic autocomplete.

Features

• 🌐 Network-wide search - Search across all sites in your WordPress multisite network
• ⚡ Lightning fast - Powered by Meilisearch's instant search engine
• 🔍 Automatic autocomplete - Real-time search suggestions as you type
• 🎯 Easy configuration - Network admin settings page with connection testing
• 🔧 WP-CLI support - Bulk indexing and management via command line
• 🔄 Auto-sync - Content automatically indexed on publish/update
• 🚀 Modern PHP - Uses Fiber + ReactPHP for concurrent operations (PHP 8.1+)
• 📊 Real-time Metrics - Monitor index statistics and performance without cache
• 🔎 Index Analyzer - Automatically detect multiple WordPress networks and their index patterns
• 🔗 Multi-Pattern Search - Search across multiple WordPress networks simultaneously

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• WordPress Multisite
• PHP 8.1+
• Self-hosted Meilisearch instance
• Composer (for development)

Installation

1. Install Meilisearch

Follow the official Meilisearch installation guide.

For Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name meilisearch \
  -p 7700:7700 \
  -e MEILI_MASTER_KEY=your-master-key \
  -v $(pwd)/meili_data:/meili_data \
  getmeili/meilisearch:latest

2. Install Plugin

1. Clone or download this repository to wp-content/plugins/meilisearch
2. Run composer install --no-dev in the plugin directory
3. Network activate the plugin in WordPress Network Admin

3. Configure

1. Go to Network Admin → Settings → Meilisearch
2. Enter your Meilisearch host URL (e.g., http://localhost:7700)
3. Enter your Meilisearch master key
4. Enable the plugin
5. Save settings

4. Index Content

Use WP-CLI to index all sites:

wp meilisearch index --network

Or index a specific site:

wp meilisearch index --url=site.example.com

Configuration

The plugin is configured only in the Network Admin panel:

• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Dashboard - Overview and quick access
• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Settings - Configure connection and index format
• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Metrics - Real-time index statistics (no cache)
• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Index Analyzer - Detect multiple WordPress networks and patterns
• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Multi-Pattern Search - Configure cross-network search
• Network Admin → Meilisearch → Experimental - Enable/disable experimental Meilisearch features

Settings are stored network-wide using get_site_option().

Index Analyzer

The Index Analyzer page helps identify and manage multiple WordPress networks sharing the same Meilisearch server:

• Automatic Pattern Detection - Analyzes all indexes to identify naming patterns
• Network URL Discovery - Maps index patterns to their WordPress network URLs
• Multi-Network Support - Perfect for hosting multiple WordPress installations
• Real-time Analysis - No caching, always shows current state

This is especially useful when:

• Managing multiple WordPress Multisite installations
• Each network uses different index naming formats
• You need to identify which indexes belong to which network

Multi-Pattern Search

The Multi-Pattern Search page allows you to search across multiple WordPress networks that share the same Meilisearch server:

• Cross-Network Search - Include results from other WordPress networks in your searches
• Pattern Selection - Choose which index patterns to include in search results
• Real-time Configuration - Changes take effect immediately without reindexing
• Visual Interface - Easy checkbox selection with network URL display

Use cases:

• Corporate Portals - Search across public and internal networks
• Multi-Brand Sites - Unified search across different brand networks
• Migration Support - Include both old and new index patterns during transitions

See full Multi-Pattern Search documentation for detailed usage.

WP-CLI Commands

O plugin inclui comandos WP-CLI completos para gerenciamento. Veja a documentação completa.

Comandos Principais

# Verificar saúde do servidor Meilisearch
wp meilisearch health

# Listar todos os índices
wp meilisearch list_indexes

# Reindexar todos os blogs da rede
wp meilisearch reindex

# Reindexar blog específico
wp meilisearch reindex --blog_id=2

# Buscar posts
wp meilisearch search "termo de busca"

# Ver estatísticas
wp meilisearch stats

# Criar índice manualmente
wp meilisearch create_index 2

# Deletar índice
wp meilisearch delete_index 2 --yes

Para mais detalhes, exemplos e casos de uso, consulte docs/WP-CLI.md.

Architecture

Multi-Index Strategy

Each site in the network gets its own Meilisearch index:

• Site 1: wp_1_posts
• Site 2: wp_2_posts
• Site 3: wp_3_posts

Search Behavior

When a search is performed, the plugin:

1. Intercepts the WordPress search query (pre_get_posts hook)
2. Performs a multi-index search across all network sites
3. Returns combined results ordered by relevance
4. Maintains WordPress pagination

Auto-Indexing

Content is automatically indexed when:

• A post is published or updated (save_post hook)
• A post is deleted (delete_post hook)
• A new site is created (wpmu_new_blog hook)
• A site is deleted (wp_delete_site hook)

Indexed Content Types

The plugin indexes:

• All post types (posts, pages, custom post types)
• Post metadata (title, content, excerpt)
• Taxonomies (categories, tags)
• Author information
• Timestamps for sorting

Development

Setup

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Setup WordPress test environment
bash bin/install-wp-tests.sh wordpress_tests root mysql localhost latest

# Run tests
vendor/bin/phpunit

# Check code standards
vendor/bin/phpcs

# Auto-fix code standards
vendor/bin/phpcbf

# Generate API documentation
bash bin/generate-docs.sh
# Or with composer
composer docs

File Structure

meilisearch/
├── includes/
│   ├── class-client.php          # Meilisearch client wrapper
│   ├── class-indexer.php         # Indexing logic
│   ├── class-searcher.php        # Search queries
│   ├── class-autocomplete.php    # Autocomplete API
│   └── class-cli.php             # WP-CLI commands
├── admin/
│   ├── class-dashboard.php        # Dashboard overview
│   ├── class-metrics.php          # Real-time metrics page
│   ├── class-index-analyzer.php   # Network pattern analyzer
│   └── class-network-settings.php # Network admin UI
├── public/
│   └── class-search-override.php  # Frontend search replacement
├── assets/
│   ├── js/autocomplete.js        # Frontend autocomplete
│   └── css/autocomplete.css      # Autocomplete styles
├── docs/
│   └── WP-CLI.md                 # WP-CLI documentation
└── .github/
    └── copilot-instructions.md    # AI agent instructions

How It Works

1. Indexing with Fiber

The plugin uses PHP 8.1 Fibers for concurrent indexing:

$fiber = new Fiber(function() use ($site) {
    switch_to_blog($site->blog_id);
    // Index posts for this site
    restore_current_blog();
});
$fiber->start();

2. Multi-Index Search

Searches across all network indexes simultaneously:

$results = $client->multiSearch([
    ['indexUid' => 'wp_1_posts', 'q' => $query],
    ['indexUid' => 'wp_2_posts', 'q' => $query],
    ['indexUid' => 'wp_3_posts', 'q' => $query],
]);

3. Autocomplete

Real-time suggestions via REST API:

GET /wp-json/meilisearch/v1/autocomplete?q=search+term

Troubleshooting

Connection Failed

Check that Meilisearch is running:

curl http://localhost:7700/health

No Search Results

Reindex all content:

wp meilisearch reindex --network

Check index status:

wp meilisearch status --network

Performance Issues

• Ensure Meilisearch has adequate resources
• Consider increasing batch size in class-indexer.php
• Use a dedicated Meilisearch instance for production

License

GPLv2 or later

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow WordPress coding standards and include tests for new features.

Credits

• Built with Meilisearch PHP SDK
• Uses ReactPHP for async operations
• Developed for WordPress Multisite networks