Search as a page, not just a popup
A real page on your site that hosts the full search experience, with your header and footer around it.
On this page
Overview
The Advanced Search page is a normal WordPress page on your site that hosts the full Allspice search experience inline - your header above it, your footer below it - rather than opening search in an overlay.
It is the better choice when search is a destination on your site rather than a quick lookup: readers can link to it, bookmark it, share it, and land on it from your menu.
Creating the Page
- In WordPress, open Allspice settings
- Choose Create search page
- Edit the page if you want to add your own copy around it
- Publish it
The default address is /advanced-search/. Like the membership page, it is created as a draft and never published automatically, and an existing page at that slug is adopted rather than duplicated.
The page works by placing the [allspice_search] shortcode, which renders a mount point that the Allspice script boots into. You can move that shortcode into any page or template you prefer.
Pointing Search At It
Creating the page does not by itself change what your search box does. Two settings control that, and both must be right:
| Setting | Where | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Search replacement | Publisher Portal | The master switch. Without it, Allspice does not touch your site search at all. |
| Search buttons open | WordPress, per device | Chooses the destination. Set it to the advanced search page. |
The portal switch always wins. If search replacement is off, the WordPress dropdown has no effect no matter what it is set to. This is deliberate: one place to turn the whole behaviour off.
Because the destination is per device, you can send desktop readers to the full page and keep the overlay on mobile, or the reverse.
Linking and Pre-filled Searches
The page accepts a query in the URL, so you can link readers straight into a result set:
Useful for category pages, seasonal roundups, and newsletters. If you would rather open the search overlay in place without navigating, the #allspice-search link works anywhere on the site and accepts a query too.
If the Page Is Missing
If the dropdown points at the search page but the page has been deleted, trashed, or left as a draft, Allspice falls back to opening the full-page search widget instead.
Readers never get sent to a 404. The most common cause of the fallback is simply forgetting to publish the draft.
Troubleshooting
My search box still opens the overlay
- Confirm search replacement is enabled in the Publisher Portal - this is the master switch
- Confirm the "Search buttons open" dropdown is set for the device you are testing on
- Confirm the page is published, not a draft
The page loads but search does not appear
- Confirm the
[allspice_search]shortcode is still in the page content - Check for aggressive JavaScript deferral, which can stop the widget booting. See plugin compatibility.
The layout looks wrong inside my theme
The page embeds into your theme's page template, so unusually narrow content widths or sidebars can crowd it. Try a full-width page template first, then contact support with the URL.