How do I combine search for categories and entries into one set of search results?

Question

I have a search page. I can search either categories or entries using

{% set entries = craft.entries.search(query).order('score') %}
{% set categories = craft.categories.search(query).order('score') %}

I have added quite a bit of content in each category i.e. what it's all about etc. and I would like this content returned like a standard search result going to the category URL (it works when I search categories only)

I've tried to merge the above two arrays

{% set results = categories | merge (entries) %}

But that's obviously not how you do it because it throws a craft error.

Now, I guess I could return the results of one, and then the other, but I was hoping to have the score create a more sensible order of relevant results.

Answer 1

The reason you're getting an error when trying to merge the two search results is that they are not technically arrays, but elementCriteriaModels. To convert them to actual arrays you would need to use the find() method.

{% set entries = craft.entries.search(query).order('score').find() %}
{% set categories = craft.categories.search(query).order('score').find() %}
{% set results = categories|merge(entries) %}

The problem with this is that the sort order will be wrong (showing all categories and then all entries). Although you could potentially sort the results array using something like the supersort plugin.

The other option to consider is redesigning the database so that there is nothing in categories that needed to be searched for, which might simplify things in the end.