WordPress.org

Author: Isaac Rowntree

Turn your Wordpress post categories into a search powerhouse! This plugin gives you the ability to provide your users with a widget full of dropdowns based upon parent categories and their sub-categories.

Multiple subcategories spanning multiple parent categories (though multiple categories inside a single parent cannot be chosen) are chosen and intelligently filter your posts.

Please note that this plugin, while it is a widget, can be used on a sidebar you define anywhere within your theme that you like. Think of it as a 'block' area rather than a 'sidebar'.

Sample Application:

Real Estate - set up parent categories such as 'Bedrooms', 'Bathrooms', 'Price Range', etc. Then put sub-categories beneath them. These are the ones that are searched.

Create a new post and tick all applicable sub-categories. Users should now be able to search for your post under all those categories!

Features:

• Inclusive category search
• Exclusive category search
• Automatically checks for the 'uncategorized' category and hides it
• Generates complete URL
• Now does a proper URL-Rewrite if permalinks are enabled!
• Pagination!!
• Shows all posts for all categories if searched without choosing anything.
• Exclude certain categories
• Tested with All-in-one-SEO, WP Smart Sort, and sCategory Permalink. Now plays nice with all four! Required a bit of a logic rewrite, thus the 2.0
• Supports the new WP 2.8+ widget class structure and as a result is now available in as many instances as needed

List of possible future features:

• More than one sub-level!!
• Tags used in some way...

Please be aware that I'll only be updating this if I need to or if I'm paid to. Feel free to come on board and contribute!