Custom Search Fields - Update docuemtatio

[matthewstick]

Please update your documentation:

https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/system/searching.html

I waste so much time on this every few months. It so easy, yet so frustrating. Somewhere in an old support email from you, or project, I have the answer. But it's impossible to find.

I just need to query by custom fields or search by custom fields. And sometimes a wildcard match - that it.

if I have a custom field called whatever, how can I do this?

{% set entry = craft.entries()
  .section('myentries')
.whatever('abc)
  .one()
%}

I think technically that is documented (https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/development/element-queries.html#types--parameters - ie .paintColor('silver') but it does not work for me.

or this?

{% set entry = craft.entries()
  .section('myentries')
.whatever('*' ~ value ~ '*')
  .one()
%}

or this?

{% set entry = craft.entries()
  .section('myentries')
.search('whatever:*' ~ value ~ '*')
  .one()
%}

Yes, search indexing is enabled for field and everything is resaved.

etc. There is some custom field thing we have to do in twig, but it's un-documented.

I would love for you to not answer her e- because it will get lost. But update your documentation - please. I wasted a half day on this already.

I'm just bypassing search entirely now, query all entries, and manually matching. Exhausted - thanks!

[brandonkelly]

Hi, maybe part of the confusion here is that you are referring to two different types of params.

search('foo') is for fulltext search, which is what the Searching page covers. That’s also what powers the search input within the Entries index page (etc.) within the control panel.

It’s possible to target custom field keywords specifically from that, by prefixing your search term with myFieldHandle: (see each of the examples that start with body:).

Separately, custom fields also provide support for their own direct element query params, e.g. myCustomField('foo'). That’s explained in the Element Queries page in the docs under Querying with Custom Fields. It’s a little tricky to document centrally because each field type is responsible for handling these parameters. Which is why that section ends with:

See each field type’s documentation for what kinds of values you can use.

For example, see the Querying Elements with Dropdown Fields section on the Dropdown field type’s page.

if I have a custom field called whatever, how can I do this?

{% set entry = craft.entries()
  .section('myentries')
.whatever('abc)
  .one()
%}

Depending on the field type, that could be correct. If it’s a Dropdown field and one of the option values is abc, then that would give you entries where abc is selected.

.paintColor('silver') but it does not work for me.

What type of field is paintColor?