Vantage Search Auto Suggest is a plugin that enables a Google-like “Auto Suggest” feature right into your Vantage theme. Search is an important feature of Vantage theme and is evident by the sheer preference given to the search box in the design, however a lot of us have been spoiled by Google’s Auto Suggest feature. Many users expect now every search to function like that of Google’s. This plugin gives you a chance to give the same functionality to your users.
Unfortunately, Vantage doesn’t have the Auto Suggest search feature. It was a requested feature in the forums too, so we decided to cook this plugin for you. Now, you can offer the “Auto Suggest” functionality to your visitors by enabling this plugin. As soon as, the users would start typing, the intelligent search engine would automatically suggest various posts or events making it easier for users to select.
Note -> Read Before You Buy: The plugin has been made compatible to default Vantage theme’s search box. Its CSS is not guaranteed to work with any of Vantage’s Child themes. You’d have to contact me to get the CSS to be fixed. It would attract an additional charge of $30-50 depending on how much time it takes.
My Answer To This Review (Click here to read review): In all honesty, I agree with Eric – The plugin will lose on speed because we have to make queries in the database rather than creating a JSON file for all the entries in your website. We had taken the JSON approach however had to switch to database because of the feedback from ITFind (1st site in Sites using The Plugin).
JSON file becomes too heavy in size if the listings are more. In case of ITFind – the size of the JSON file became 2 Mb in size when it could only process 3,000 entries. Whereas they had over 150,000 listings. That JSON file gets downloaded whenever the page loads – i’m sure no webmaster would want a page that heavy!
That’s my 2 cents in defense of this plugin and the hard work that we’ve put in it. The developer shouldn’t be blamed for poor web hosting. A good web hosting with good database server will certainly be able to deliver the results faster.
Sites Using The Plugin:
- ITFind.It: The site is running on a shared server and has got 150,000 listings!
- Punjabi Center: The site lists businesses focusing towards Punjabi community.
Please see the changelog tab for the changes.
Planned Changes –
1. Revamped UI for plugin’s settings.
2. Optimization of speed of the results fetching.
