Akvo Sites custom post type search/filtering by visitor

[Lynngre]

Akvo Sites filtering/searching content in custom post types

On the old ZZ theme we currently use the 'Ultimate WP query search filter' plugin. The plugin does not function as expected within the old theme so has not really been used but there are a few sites now requiring a proper search option for custom post types such as media library, news, maps, etc.

What is required:

• An administrator or web content editor needs to have the ability to add search criteria to particular custom posts.
• A search filter needs to be available IF selected to appear in the top of the page as a filter bar OR sidebar as a widget on the individual pages.
• Administrator/web content editor should be able to set whether the search filter widget/bar appears on the page in the backend.
• The filters are created by adding ‘slugs’ so the user gets to setup which filtering options are found such as ‘pdf’, ‘xls’, etc

In the admin/backend the following items need to have particular tags to filter on:

Blog posts - filters:
Languages, Locations/countries, Month/Year, Category

News - filters:
Languages, Locations/countries, Month/Year, Category

Testimonials - filters:
Languages, Locations/countries, Month/Year, Category

Videos - filters:
Languages, Locations/countries, Month/Year, Category, Types (url, mp4)

Maps - filters:
Languages, Locations/countries, Month/Year, Category

Filtering examples:

Languages - Create a slug with ‘english’, ‘spanish’, etc
Locations/Countries - create a slug with ‘Spain’, ‘UK’, etc
Month/Year - this should automatically be collected by the system ie. Month & year of creation (or possible just year?)
Types - create a slug with ‘mp4’, ‘url’, ‘pdf’, ‘xls’, etc
Category - not sure this is useful for all? Or could this be used for more than just ‘news’ ‘blogs’?