Using multiple 'search' parameter values to filter entries

Question

I'm trying to filter entries down based on keywords and also if they have selected a letter that matches the first letter of an entry title on Craft 3.

So far I have this:

{% set keywordParam = craft.request.param('keyword') %}
{% set characterParam = craft.request.param('filterByCharacter') %}

{% set entriesParams = {
   section: 'people',
   level: 1
} %}

{% set searchArray = ['OR'] %}

{% if characterParam|length %}
   {% set searchArray = searchArray|merge(['title:' ~ characterParam ~ '*']) %}
{% endif %}

{% if keywordParam|length %}
   {% set searchArray = searchArray|merge(['title:' ~ keywordParam]) %}
{% endif %}

{% if searchArray|length %}
   {% set entriesParams = entriesParams|merge({ search: searchArray }) %}
{% endif %}

{% set peopleEntries = craft.entries(entriesParams) %}

At the moment this is producing the error:

Undefined index: query

I've narrowed it down to this line(s):

{% if searchArray|length %}
   {% set entriesParams = entriesParams|merge({ search: searchArray }) %}
{% endif %}

But I can't figure out what is wrong with this, and what could be going wrong!

An example URL is:

http://localhost:3000/our-people?keyword=sach&filterByCharacter=M

Answer 1

Just looked at the docs (https://docs.craftcms.com/v3/searching.html#supported-syntaxes) and it looks like the accepted syntax for this would be:

title::M* OR title:sach

As a result, modifying your code like so should achieve this:

{% set keywordParam = craft.request.param('keyword') %}
{% set characterParam = craft.request.param('filterByCharacter') %}

{% set entriesParams = {
   section: 'people',
   level: 1
} %}

{% set searchArray = [] %}

{% if characterParam|length %}
   {% set searchArray = searchArray|merge(['title::' ~ characterParam ~ '*']) %}
{% endif %}

{% if keywordParam|length %}
   {% set searchArray = searchArray|merge(['title:' ~ keywordParam]) %}
{% endif %}

{% if searchArray|length %}
   {% set searchParam = searchArray|join(' OR ') %}
   {% set entriesParams = entriesParams|merge({ search: searchParam }) %}
{% endif %}

{% set peopleEntries = craft.entries(entriesParams) %}

Hope that resolves it for you.