Description
Aetos Arabic Search Normalizer improves normal front-end WordPress searches for Arabic visitors.
It keeps WordPress’s existing title, excerpt, and content matching, then adds a bounded normalized fallback for post titles and excerpts. For example, a search for احمد can find a title containing أَحْمَد, and مدرسه can find مدرسة.
The normalizer handles these common differences:
- Alef forms: ا, أ, إ, آ, and ٱ.
- Ta marbuta and ha: ة and ه.
- Ya and alef maqsura: ي and ى.
- Waw/ya with hamza: ؤ and ئ.
- Common Arabic diacritics and tatweel.
- Common Persian keyboard forms for kaf and ya.
The plugin works automatically with posts, pages, WooCommerce products, and other post types when their front-end search uses WordPress’s normal WP_Query search.
Performance boundaries
The plugin deliberately normalizes only the relatively short post_title and post_excerpt database columns. WordPress’s original post_content search remains active, but the plugin does not wrap full content in repeated SQL transformations.
Enhancement is skipped and the exact core search is preserved for admin, REST, Ajax, attachment, excluded-term, unusually long, or more than six-term searches. These are performance and compatibility boundaries, not paid limits.
The plugin creates no index, custom table, option, cookie, analytics record, scheduled task, REST route, or external request.
Privacy
The plugin sends no data outside the site and stores no search terms, settings, cookies, analytics, or personal data.
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/aetos-arabic-search-normalizer/, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen. - Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen.
- Use the normal front-end WordPress search. No setup or indexing is required.
- Test representative Arabic searches from your own content before relying on the results.
FAQ
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Does it change my posts or create a search index?
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No. It changes only eligible search SQL while the query runs. It does not alter stored content, create tables, or build an index.
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Does it replace WordPress search?
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No. The original title, excerpt, and content conditions remain. The plugin adds normalized title and excerpt matching for eligible Arabic searches.
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Why is full post content not normalized?
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Applying many text transformations to every full-content value can make database searches substantially slower. Exact WordPress content matching remains available, while normalized matching is limited to titles and excerpts.
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Does it work with WooCommerce?
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Yes, when the product search uses the normal front-end WordPress query. It does not integrate with separate Ajax/live-search engines supplied by themes, services, or other plugins.
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Does it affect searches in wp-admin or the REST API?
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No. Version 1.0.0 intentionally limits enhancement to non-admin, non-REST, non-Ajax WordPress searches.
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Does it collect search analytics?
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No. It stores no search terms, visitor data, cookies, or analytics.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Aetos Arabic Search Normalizer” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Aetos Arabic Search Normalizer” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release.