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Free Plugin by Syed Balkhi v0.5.7

SearchWP Modal Search Form

Quickly and easily insert modal search forms into Menus, as a Block, or directly within theme templates.

SearchWP Modal Search Form

The facts

Rating
5★ from 6
Active installs
5k+
Price
Free
Last updated
15 Dec 2025
Added
Jun 2019
Requires WP
5.0
Tested up to
WP 6.9.7
Requires PHP
7.0
Downloads
86,149

Our analysis

AI-assisted

SearchWP Modal Search Form is a WordPress plugin that allows you to add a modal search form to your website. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress and can be implemented as a menu item, shortcode, Gutenberg block, or programmatically within templates.

The plugin is designed to be lightweight and accessible, with a focus on providing a good experience for both developers and users. It includes a template loader for customization, enabling you to modify the appearance of the modal search form to match your site's theme.

Best for: This plugin is suitable for WordPress users looking to enhance their site's search functionality with a customizable modal form.

What it does well

  • Easily integrates an accessible modal search form
  • Customizable templates for different appearances
  • Multiple implementation methods available
  • No dependency on jQuery, but supports it if available
  • Thorough documentation provided

Where it falls short

  • Limited information on specific features beyond the basic description

Verdict

SearchWP Modal Search Form provides a straightforward solution for adding search functionality to WordPress sites. Its customisation options and ease of use make it a practical choice for developers.

From the developer

Syed Balkhi's own description of SearchWP Modal Search Form, lightly tidied.

Use SearchWP Modal Search Form to easily integrate an accessible, lightweight modal search form into your WordPress website! SearchWP Modal Search Form does not require SearchWP but it will utilize SearchWP if it’s installed and activated! 👍

Beyond the information made available in this README there is full documentation available as well.

What makes it different from other modals?

The philosophy behind SearchWP Modal Search Form is to make it easy to implement accessible and lightweight modal search forms but perhaps even more important make it a great developer (and user) experience.

SearchWP Modal Search Form directly integrates with WordPress in the way you use it, and the default modal form theme builds upon the styles put in place by your active theme, making the overhead as small as possible. There’s a full template loader built in as well, allowing you to fully customize your SearchWP Modal Search Form with minimal hassle.

Check out the default template for an example of how easy it is to customize 🤓

Adding modal forms to your site

SearchWP Modal Search Form makes it easy to implement modal search forms anywhere in your WordPress website. The following methods are built in and available to you:

  1. As a Menu Item
  2. Using a Shortcode
  3. As a Gutenberg Block
  4. Within your template(s) programmatically

Template Customization

SearchWP Modal Search Form integrates a proper template loader for displaying search forms in any number of templates, allowing you to fully customize what the modal looks like per template.

The most straightforward way to create a custom template is as follows:

  1. Create a folder named searchwp-modal-form within your theme
  2. Create a file within that folder named template.php (or any name ending in .php)
  3. Copy the contents of the default template into that file
  4. Customize the SearchWP Modal Form Name value in the header comment block
  5. Make any other customizations you\’d like to the markup/style, paying attention to the documentation

There are (jQuery) events that fire when modals are opened and closed. jQuery is not a dependency, but if jQuery is loaded the events will fire.

// Add a callback when a modal is opened:
jQuery('body').on('searchwpModalOnShow', function(e) {
    // Focus an input in the template.
    e.el.find('input').focus();
});

// Add a callback when a modal is closed:
jQuery('body').on('searchwpModalOnClose', function(e) {
    alert('Modal closed!');
});

Please review the full template documentation for more detailed information.

Read the full description on the official page →

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