Customizing Search for Events and Tickets

The Events Calendar and Event Tickets interact with search in two separate places: the main WordPress search on your site, and the event search bar that appears on calendar pages. This article covers snippets for customizing both.

Use the section that matches what you’re trying to do:

Exclude Events from Site Search — hide events from WordPress’s main search results.
Exclude Tickets from Site Search — hide Event Tickets Plus / WooCommerce tickets from WordPress’s main search results.
Narrow the Event Calendar Search Bar to Titles Only — adjust the search bar on your calendar pages so it only matches event titles (not descriptions or excerpts).

Exclude Events from Site Search

By default, events created with The Events Calendar and Events Calendar Pro appear in the WordPress search results on your website. However, the situation may arise where you’d like to exclude events from the WordPress search results instead. For example, perhaps you’d only like users to see your blog posts there.

Don’t worry; you can add a snippet to your WordPress site to make that happen. Let’s see how to exclude events from WordPress search results below!

Add the following snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or use this handy Code Snippets plugin:

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_search_exclude_filter' );
function my_search_exclude_filter( $query ) {
    if ( ! $query->is_admin && $query->is_search && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $searchable_post_types = get_post_types( array( 'exclude_from_search' => false ) );
        $post_type_to_remove = 'tribe_events';
        if( is_array( $searchable_post_types ) && in_array( $post_type_to_remove, $searchable_post_types ) ) {
            unset( $searchable_post_types[ $post_type_to_remove ] );
            $query->set( 'post_type', $searchable_post_types );
        }
    }
}

Exclude Past Events

If you have a recurring event or multiple recurring events that have already occurred, they can cause the search results to become muddled. Use the following code snippet to prevent past events from appearing in search results.

<?php
function filter_search_results( $query ) {
    if ( is_admin() ) {
        return;
    }
    if ( ! $query->is_main_query() ) {
        return;
    }
    if ( ! $query->is_search ) {
        return;
    }
    $meta_query = [
        'relation' => 'or',
        [
             'key'     => '_EventEndDate',
             'value'   => date('Y-m-d').' 00:00:00',
             'compare' => '>=',
             'type'    => 'DATETIME'
        ],
        [
             'key'     => '_EventStartDate',
             'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
        ],
   ];
   $query->set( 'meta_query', $meta_query );
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'filter_search_results');

You can learn more about using custom code snippets in our Knowledgebase.

Exclude Tickets from Site Search

By default, tickets created with Event Tickets Plus and WooCommerce appear in the WordPress search results on your website. This is because they are created as regular WooCommerce products. However, the situation may arise where you’d like to exclude tickets from the WordPress search results instead. For example, perhaps you’d only like users to see your blog posts there.

Don’t worry; you can add a snippet to your WordPress site to make that happen. Let’s see how to exclude tickets from WordPress search results below!

The following snippet will remove all tickets from the default WordPress search results. Add it to your theme’s functions.php file or use this handy Code Snippets plugin:

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', function ( $query ) {
    if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && $query->is_search() ) {
        // Modify the query to exclude ticket products by checking for '_ticket_end_date'
        $meta_query = [
            [
                'key'     => '_ticket_end_date',
                'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS', // Exclude any products with '_ticket_end_date' field
            ],
        ];
        // Apply the meta_query to exclude ticket products
        $query->set( 'meta_query', $meta_query );
    }
} );

Exclude Past Tickets

If you have a lot of events, and tickets that are past their sell date, they can cause the search results to become muddled. Use the following code snippet to prevent only past tickets from appearing in search results.

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', function ( $query ) {
	if ( ! is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && $query->is_search() ) {
		$current_date = current_time( 'mysql' );
		// Modify the query to exclude past tickets
		$meta_query = [
			'relation' => 'OR',
			// Include tickets that haven't expired
			[
				'key'     => '_ticket_end_date',
				'value'   => $current_date,
				'compare' => '>=',
				'type'    => 'DATETIME',
			],
			// Include non ticket products
			[
				'key'     => '_ticket_end_date',
				'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
			],
		];
		$query->set( 'meta_query', $meta_query );
	}
} );

You can learn more about using custom code snippets in our Knowledgebase.

Narrow the Event Calendar Search Bar to Titles Only

The event search bar at the top of every calendar page lets visitors search through your events. By default, that search looks for the given string within the event title, the description, and the excerpt.

If you’d like to adjust this search functionality so that the search only happens in event titles, the following snippet can help. It will exclude both the content and the excerpt from the search. Place it in your (child) theme’s functions.php file or follow our guide on Best Practices for Implementing Custom Code Snippets.

Knowledgebase