A WordPress plugin that adds a quick help search box directly in the admin menu.
Configurable search URL, full search term logging, and built-in statistics page. Fully compatible with multisite networks.
LSAH Admin Help Search adds a convenient search field right in the WordPress admin menu (position 1, immediately after the Dashboard). Administrators can quickly search your custom help documentation, knowledge base, or any external search engine.
- Works on all sites in a multisite network and on single-site installations.
- Configurable search action URL (set by Network Admin or site admin).
- User can hide the help search field, via the Screen Options.
- Captures search queries from both the WordPress Dashboard and directly from the frontend of your designated Manual/Help site (if in same multisite).
- Logs every search in a network-wide database table (
{prefix}lsah_admin_searches) including:- Site ID (
blog_id) - Search term
- Full search URL
- Count
- First and last searched dates
- Site ID (
- Statistics page with a table of all recorded searches (Network Admin → Settings → Help Search Statistics).
- Optimized Performance: Features "fail-early" logic (3-character minimum) and multibyte support (Greek/UTF-8) to ensure high-quality data and zero site slowdown.
- Translation-ready (
lsah-admin-help-searchtext domain).
Ideal for multisite networks with a centralized help system (e.g., internal wiki, custom manual, WordPress.org, Google Custom Search, Algolia, etc.).
- Upload the
lsah-admin-help-searchfolder to/wp-content/plugins/. - Activate the plugin:
- On multisite: via Network Admin → Plugins
- On single-site: via Plugins
- Go to:
- Multisite: Network Admin → Settings → Help Search
- Single-site: Settings → Help Search
- Enter your search results URL (e.g.,
https://help.example.com/search?q=).
The URL must start withhttp://orhttps://. - Click Save Changes.
The "Help for…" search box will appear in the admin menu for all administrators.
-
Settings page in Network Admin
-
The Help search box in the admin menu
-
The option to hide the Help search box via the 'Screen Options'.
-
Statistics page with recorded searches
Yes — it works perfectly on both single-site and multisite setups.
In a network-wide table named {prefix}lsah_admin_searches (using your database prefix). The blog_id column distinguishes searches per site.
Yes! Visit Network Admin → Settings → Help Search Statistics (or Settings → Help Search Statistics on single-site) for a full searchable and sortable overview.
I think so. It includes:
- Strict URL validation (client-side JavaScript + server-side PHP)
- Safe form handling via enqueued JS
- Nonce verification for AJAX logging
- Full input sanitization and output escaping
- Enhancement: Add settings and statistics links under plugin's name in plugins page.
- Fix: Prevented screen options from appearing in the Network Admin context.
- Documentation: Added missing phpDoc in some function
- Refactor: Optimized to load only in the appropriate admin context.
- Updated plugin name and version, improved permission checks
- Added functionality for subsite member to hide the help search field, via the Screen Options.
- Enhanced user feedback messages and AJAX handling for user preferences.
- NEW: Added tracking for searches performed directly on the manual's frontend.
- IMPROVEMENT: Refactored core logging into a central function for consistency.
- IMPROVEMENT: Implemented a smart de-duplication mechanism (5-second window).
- IMPROVEMENT: Added 3-character minimum requirement for search logging (multibyte/Greek supported).
- Initial public release
- Configurable search URL with full validation
- Network-wide search logging with site support
- Secure implementation using enqueued assets
- Built-in statistics page using
WP_List_Table - Translation-ready strings
- Comprehensive PHPDoc documentation
This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Made with ❤️ by lenasterg