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We've come a long way in the extended manual for phpBay, but there's still a lot of good stuff coming up. We've already covered what I think are the basics, features that I believe should be part of the core. We got into phpBay geo ip targeting and of course making the images link over to the auctions as well.

Today I want to cover converting the WordPress search to a search which shows eBay results using phpBay instead. It's not something you would want to do on all of your sites though. For example, on this blog, I still want people to find post content when doing a search, although I still use phpBay on some of the pages of this blog. This change is more for sites that are strictly designed as eBay stores. Also if you use the Search2Post plugin from psp-tubes.net, then you will already have a plugin that performs this task, and then some. In addition to showing eBay results, Search2Post also creates a post on-the-fly with the search results. That way, new content is created over time. Anyway, let's get into it...

Table Of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation/Activation
• Configuration
• Testing
• Per-Post/Per-Page Settings
• Geo-Targeting
• Making The Images Clickable
• Replacing WordPress Search With eBay Search
• Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files
• Buy phpBay Pro (20% off coupon: DA9CD69F42)
• From Picking A Market To Building/Managing Your phpBay (Or BANS) Site

Replacing WordPress Search With eBay Search

You may want to replace the WordPress search function to show eBay listings rather than regular search results for the sites existing content. To do this you just have to replace some text in your theme's search.php file. Note: This doesn't work for all themes, so be sure to do a backup in case it doesn't work for you. Here are the steps...

1. Go to your theme folder with your FTP program (FileZilla). The theme folder will be located here: '/wp-content/themes/{theme name}/' where {theme name} is the name of your theme of course :)
2. We want to edit the search.php file but we should make a quick backup first. One way is to download the file to your computer. Rename it. Upload it again. Now you have a backup on the server in case you need to fall back to it.
3. Go to your Theme Editor (Appearance > Editor) in your WordPress Control Panel.
4. Open the file 'Search Results - search.php' from the right side.
5. Locate the line:

   

   and then scroll down near the bottom and look for:

   

   You will need to remove all the code between (and including) those 2 lines and replace it with:

   

   Click here to get this code in a text file.

6. Click 'Update File'.
7. Go test the search function on your site. You should see a list of auctions as the result of a search. If not, and you get errors, check back through the code. Worse case scenario you can just restore your backup search file. To do that, go to your theme folder in your FTP software. Delete the file search.php. Locate your backup file (the one you renamed earlier) and rename it back to search.php. You can rename it right on the server. Just right-click and click 'Rename'.

That should do it. The next step is going to cover keyword tracking for SEO. In other words, you could see which keywords are used in the search engines to find your auctions, and that ultimately end in a sale. This upgrade is also FREE!

Any questions, please post below.

Related posts:

1. phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files
2. phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Making The Images Clickable
3. phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Installation and Activation
4. phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Testing
5. phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Geo-Targeting

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