Theme Drupal 6 Search Box

It help me a lot, thanks!!

I keep getting a Fatal error: Call to undefined function _phptemplate_callback() in template.php after following the above directions.

I didn't have to rename my file.
My search-theme-form.tpl.php is still the same name.

How does one go about getting rid of the submit button in favor of placing an image or javascript link?

--
Michael Bishop

Do you have to assign the form an action when you implement it in this way?

If you have your page.tpl for example with just $print search_box; somewhere then you lose the ability to define the search options right? So do you have to then add a form action of say /node/search ?

Web Developer
Music Photographer

I've followed these directions and read many, many posts on this topic and still cannot get my template search to work.

When I remove search-theme-form.tpl.php, the search works correctly but doesn't line up on my page correctly.

When I add it back in, the search term does not get passed to the search form and instead loads a blank search page.

<div id="edit-search-theme-form-1-wrapper" class="form-item">
	<label for="search_theme_form_keys" class="search-labe">Search</label>
				
	<input type="text" maxlength="128" name="search_theme_form_keys" id="edit-search-theme-form-1"  size="25" value="" title="Enter the terms you wish to search for." class="form-text" />
	<input type="submit" name="op" class="form-submit" value="Go" />
<input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-search-theme-form" value="search_theme_form" />
<input type="hidden" name="form_token" id="a-unique-id" value="<?php print drupal_get_token('search_theme_form'); ?>" />
</div>	

Any suggestions?

Hi, for me only copying and editing search-block-form.tpl.php worked. Also I didn't change the - to _. I'm quite new to Drupal though, should I? The developer module also gives as module suggestion 'search-block-form.tpl.php' and nothing with underscores.

I spent some time searching for this too, and wouldn't have thought of the str_replace trick right away (was trying to find a way to modify the raw search form array).

For anyone who is looking for a simple way to resize the search box in drupal 6 - follow the above instructions and use this code or similar:

<div class="container-inline">
  <?php print str_replace('size="15"', 'size="25"', $search_form); ?>
</div>

IMO this approach is better than hard coding the whole search form, even if you have a few attributes you wish to change. (View source of rendered search form, find the text you wish to change, and call str_replace as needed to produce the desired output.)

Hi All,

Here's another way of doing the same thing. It's based on overriding preproccess functions. Add this function to the template.php file of your theme. Remember to remove the ...

function {theme_name}_preprocess_search_theme_form(&$variables) {
  $variables['form']['search_theme_form']['#title'] = '';
  $variables['form']['search_theme_form']['#size'] = 25;
  $variables['form']['search_theme_form']['#value'] = 'search';
  $variables['form']['search_theme_form']['#attributes'] = array('onblur' => "if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'search';}", 'onfocus' => "if (this.value == 'search') {this.value = '';}" );
  unset($variables['form']['search_theme_form']['#printed']);
  
  $variables['search']['search_theme_form'] = drupal_render($variables['form']['search_theme_form']);
  
  $variables['search_form'] = implode($variables['search']);
}

Nathan.

Hi guys,

I cant get my theme to change using any of these methods above, im using drupal 6 and the clean theme. Ive tried simple stuff like changing the div name and clearing the cache but nothing seems to be working. Anyone experienced similar?

Cheers.

Garry Bain, sdesign1
Drupal Experts

Just check this pdf doc:
http://drupal.org/files/theme_flow_6_1.pdf

It shows obviously that engineName_preprocess_hook() will be called after template_preprocess_hook(). That means in this case, the form has already been generated when it goes into engineName_preprocess_hook() which is defined in template.php. Because it's form, you cannot render it twice and expect second round overrides first round.

In this thread this one works for me. I think this is the best approach:
http://drupal.org/node/224183#comment-1223234

If you want to want your search box to be able to filter the search by content types, modify this code as needed in page.tpl.php or possibly in search-theme-form.tpl.php (haven't tested it here).

<form action="<?php echo $base_path; ?>search/node" method="post" id="search-theme-form">
<div id="search">
      <input type="text" class="form-text" id="edit-search-theme-form-1" value="search..." size="15" onclick="this.value = ''" onblur="if (!this.value) this.value = 'search...'" name="keys" />
      <input type="submit" value="GO" name="op" title="Search" class="form-submit" alt="Search" />
      <input type="hidden" value="<?php print drupal_get_token('search_form'); ?>" name="form_token" />
      <input type="hidden" value="search_form" id="edit-search-form" name="form_id" />
      <br />
      <div class="checks">
        <input type="checkbox" name="type[ContentType1]" id="edit-content-type-1" value="ContentType1" /> ContentType1
        <input type="checkbox" name="type[ContentType2]" id="edit-content-type-2" value="ContentType2" /> ContentType2
      </div>
   </div>
</form>

You can add as many content types as you want of course. This example has no title, has a default value in the text input box of "search..." and uses the word "go" on the submit button, while displaying 2 checkboxes underneath to filter the search by those content types. Replace ContentType1 and 2 with whatever content type you want to filter by.

thanks a lot !!!
I've spend a lot of time trying to understand how overriding works, and with the different processes (according to the versions) it was very confusing. Even if not everything is perfect, it helps!

This seems like a really common feature on a lot of sites, and I thought it would just be a matter of adding the selctor in hook_form_alter and the rest would just happen. Wrong. search_block and search advanced have nothing in common.

Apparently it can also be done with views etc, but I just wanted a selector added to the normal search block. NOT EASY.
But done.
My version is at : http://cvs.drupal.org/viewvc.py/drupal/contributions/sandbox/dman/search...

It may make a project unless someone points out that it's really a lot easier than I thought....

WOW!! You guys are awesome. I have been looking all over for this, and those links are very helpful. I do have a couple of issues that are keeping me from applying this and testing this method out. I do not have a template.php file. Of coarse I had to choose the theme (dreamy) that does not have one. Grrr... Is this still going to work for me? If so, where to I place the code? I am assuming I just need to put it in my page.tpl.php file? I dunno. Also, I am not trying to completely get ride of the "search this site" text, rather I want to place it inside of the search box, and have it disappear once you click on it. If anyone has suggestions on how to make that work, or lead me in the right direction that would be great! Right now I am working with the only other information I have found that might be of help to you guys here. I am using drupal 6.10 if that makes a difference. Thanks.

For those of you still having trouble. I have created a module to do this. It allows you to change the settings. It is still in dev but should be stable enough for production. Just awaiting some testing.

http://www.drupal.org/project/custom_search_box

I'd like to hide the search button altogether. I want only the text box displayed and when you type in terms and hit enter it forwards to the search results.

I have tried #type hidden with no luck. Any help is appreciated.

I need to remove the space between the text box and search button.

Basically the text box and submit button "image" should be touching each other.

Is this possible? Do I need to over ride the search box and/or button?

Can anyone here help me with the code.

I'm using D6 with theme.

Thanks for any help...

If one reason you need, like the original poster, is to remove or customize the label "Search this site:", drupal 6 arrived with the hidden gem on your settings.php, find and activate the last section, String overrides:

$conf['locale_custom_strings_en'] = array(
#   'forum'      => 'Discussion board',
#   '@count min' => '@count minutes',
   'Search this site' => '',
 );

Your label will be wiped out even from the source, or change it to something else. Or else use stringoverrides.module, especially if you are still on drupal 5.

Another good example is to simplify everything you imagine:

   'Create new account' => 'Join',
   'Request new password'      => 'Lost?',
   'Add new comment'      => 'Discuss',// perhaps Review
   'Comments'      => 'Discussions',
   'Post new comment'      => 'Discuss', //perhaps What do you think?
   'Submit'      => 'Post',
   'Enter the terms you wish to search for.' => 'Search my awesome site',
   'There is currently %members and %visitors online.' => '%members & %visitors',
   'There are currently %members and %visitors online.' => '%members & %visitors',

   'Spaces are allowed; punctuation is not allowed except for periods, hyphens, and underscores.' => '',
   'A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.' => '',

Another approach might be CSS as mentioned somewhere above or with jQuery, jquery.example plugin is the shortest way. The approach may vary depends on your intention and familiarity.

for accessibility reasons, I'd advise you people not to str_replace the title, and not to unset the title altogether since this will either lead to an empty label or no label

labels are important to blind people and others that use a screen reader, so please do not remove them

also using display:none; causes most screen readers to entirely drop the element, therefor I'd advise you to use position:absolute;left:-9999px; or something like it, so the label is still in the document (and still considered to be in the document) without bothering any users

same goes for the text on the button, don't remove it, just use text-indent:9999px; or something

Hi guys,

I managed to customize/theme my search box the way I wanted using mytheme_search_theme_form() function in template.php + CSS
Now I try to create a different style/CSS for my search box on a different page using the same function...Is it possible? How can I override the search form id/class tags and use my own?

Thanks in advance

It's amusing how this thread grew so large!

Adding [another] search box is easy:
Just do it the 'Drupal' way.

<?php print theme_get_setting('toggle_search') ? drupal_get_form('search_theme_form') : '' ?>

Of course you may want to alter the form in yourthemename_preprocess_search_theme_form().

I cant override the search module. And I dont know what the problem is.

I tried search_theme_form.tpl.php and also search-theme-form.tpl.php, but always the same result, the standard search form...

I would like to know, where I can search for the bug? Is it a problem of my theme (newsflash)?

Hi @All, I cannot avoid to chip in in this incredible post. My consideration from the point of view of a beginner should not be misunderstood considering that I'm almost 4 years on Drupal.org and tried with my modest efforts to make Drupal Documentation, easy to consult and help many user to find solution to their problems configuring Drupal. This post demonstrate how big is the love to Drupal and also how big is the fear to speak out what may irritate the great and many code and developer of Drupal.

I really understand the passion and dedication of all of them that developed Drupal, finding way to make it faster, reliable and secure but most important to develop and add many new features that reflect the modern way of implementing dynamic web sites. Though, a small piece of text Search this Site: above a search form field, coded in a core module, can cause so much discussion and action.

IMHO I naturally and instinctively think that is almost clear to almost all people using web-sites that when hovering in this field and seeing the alt text Search ... or what ever text that indicate that you can fill with your searched item the field and clicking the Search Buttom you will get a search result.

So excuse me my long chip in on this post and also for my following question to the Drupal 6 Maintainers without being able to explain why:

Is it really to hard to add a small piece of code to make that text disappear in the core search.module and configurable in the admin/settings/search and support and help finally the numerous web designer to gain more time for other design task?

I really have to stop here because there are many other really small aspects where Drupal 6 i found it would have being applied for the sake of gaining some time to go through the still heavy Drupal learning curve like per example: admin/build/modules page that is really annoying to have it open always with $collapsed => FALSE in core, and you do really have no simple solution to change that without hacking CORE. But this is off topic naturally!!

...and apology for, but to end, please build a team or group that may have a lot of follower and volunteers that may pay attention to this very small code proposal to make learning not a

... banging my head for hours on my desk trying to figure out how to override ...

as the author process91 and many may many other went trough.

Best Regards

There is a Handbook page that summarizes how to theme the BLOCK Search Form:

How to Customize the Block Search Form - http://drupal.org/node/154137

Thank you so much for knowlage.

You can also use CSS to hide the label tag inside the search object.

.class label { visibility: hidden; }

Dan

I would like to suggest a little variation to the code provided by "couzinhub".

$form['search_theme_form']['#attributes'] = array(	'onblur' => "if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'search here'; this.style.color = '#ccc';}", 'onfocus' => "if (this.value == 'search here') {this.value = '';  this.style.color = '#000';}" );

With this little change, there will be no need to change the style.css file.

There is another advantage for using this code variation. With the previous code, whenever the search box lost focus, the text would become gray no matter what it is. With this little code change, the text on the search box will only become gray if the text in it is the default text 'search here'.

Hi
I was able to add and customize the search box. Now I've created a new template for my home page (page--front.tpl.php). The problem is that I can't see the search box in this template.
When I add the following code:

<?php if($search_box): ?>
        <?php echo $search_box; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

This error appear:

Notice: Undefined variable: search_box in include() (line 95...

My template code is:

<?php
/* Shows the search form */
function mytheme_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
  if ($form_id == 'search_block_form') {
    $form['search_block_form']['#title'] = t('Search'); // Change the text on the label element
    $form['search_block_form']['#title_display'] = 'invisible'; // Toggle label visibilty
    $form['search_block_form']['#size'] = 40;  // define size of the textfield
    $form['search_block_form']['#value'] = t('Search'); // Set a default value for the textfield
    $form['actions']['submit']['#value'] = t(''); // Change the text on the submit button
    $form['actions']['submit'] = array('#type' => 'image_button', '#src' => base_path() . path_to_theme() . '/images/bg-btn-seach-sup.png');

// Add extra attributes to the text box
    $form['search_block_form']['#attributes']['onblur'] = "if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'Product Search';}";
    $form['search_block_form']['#attributes']['onfocus'] = "if (this.value == 'Search') {this.value = '';}";
  }
} 
?>

What could I do to make the form appear in all template files?