Scott Reilly

This plugin prevents WordPress from allowing and handling any search requests from the front-end of the site. Specifically, this plugin:
<ul>
<li>Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses the standard <code>get_search_form()</code> function to display the search form.</li>
<li>Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses a <code>searchform.php</code> template</li>
<li>Prevents the search item from appearing in the admin tool bar when shown on the front-end.</li>
<li>Disables the search widget.
<ul>
<li>Removes the Search widget from the list of available widgets</li>
<li>Deactivates any search widgets currently in use in any sidebars (they are hidden, not deleted; they’ll reappear in their original locations if this plugin gets deactivated)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Disables the search block.
<ul>
<li>Removes the Search block from the list of available blocks</li>
<li>Deactivates any search blocks currently in use, such as in posts or as a widget (they are disabled, not deleted; they’ll reappear if this plugin gets deactivated and the associated placeholder block doesn’t get deleted)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>With or without a search form, the plugin prevents any direct or manual requests by visitors, via either GET or POST requests, from actually returning any search results.</li>
<li>Submitted attempts at a search will be given a 404 File Not Found response, rendered by your site’s 404.php template, if present.</li>
<li>Disables output of <code>SearchAction</code> in SEO schema by the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/" rel="ugc">Yoast SEO</a> plugin.</li>
</ul>
The plugin only affects search on the front-end of the site. It does not disable searching in the admin section of the site.
Links: <a href="https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/disable-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-search/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/disable-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> | <a href="https://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a>

Disable Search


In 2024, numerous bots are crawling sites, generating significant search spam. Generally, site search incurs high costs, primarily because we end up paying for CPU resources consumed by spam.



If site search is not crucial for your website, I recommend activating this plugin.



Thank you, Scott, for maintaining this simple yet effective plugin!


The most effective way to avoid search spam

Disable the built-in front-end search capabilities of WordPress.

Safely call a function, class method, or object method in a manner that doesn’t generate errors if those plugins cease to exist.
Various helper functions are provided that provide handy variations of this theme:
<ul>
<li><code>_sfc()</code>: Safely call a function and get its return value</li>
<li><code>_sfce()</code>: Safely call a function and echo its return value</li>
<li><code>_sfcf()</code>: Safely call a function; if it doesn’t exist, then a fallback function (if specified) is called</li>
<li><code>_sfcm()</code>: Safely call a function; if it doesn’t exist, then echo a message (if provided)</li>
</ul>
Let’s assume you had something like this in a template:
<pre><code><?php list_cities( 'Texas', 3 ); ?>
</code></pre>
If you deactivated the plugin that provided <code>list_cities()</code>, your site would generate an error when that template is accessed.
You can instead use <code>_sfc()</code>, which is provided by this plugin to call other functions, like so:
<pre><code><?php _sfc( 'list_cities', 'Texas', 3 ); ?>
</code></pre>
That will simply do nothing if the <code>list_cities()</code> function is not available.
If you’d rather display a message when the function does not exist, use <code>_sfcm()</code> instead, like so:
<pre><code><?php _sfcm( 'list_cities', 'The cities listing is temporarily disabled.', 'Texas', 3 ); ?>
</code></pre>
In this case, if <code>list_cities()</code> is not available, the text “The cities listing is temporarily disabled.” will be displayed.
If you’d rather call another function when the function does not exist, use _sfcf() instead, like so:
<pre><code><?php
 function unavailable_function_handler( $function_name ) { echo "The function $function_name is not available."; }
 _sfcf( 'nonexistent_function', 'unavailable_function_handler' );
?>
</code></pre>
In the event you want to safely call a function and echo its value, you can use <code>_sfce()</code> like so:
<pre><code><?php _sfce( 'largest_city', 'Tx' ); ?>
</code></pre>
Which is roughly equivalent to doing :
<pre><code><?php if function_exists( 'largest_city' ) { echo largest_city( 'Tx' ); } ?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Filter invocation method</h4>
To further prevent issues in your code should this plugin itself become deactivated, you can use indirect filter invocation to call the plugin functions. Each function has an associated filter with the same name as the function. Simply use <code>apply_filters()</code> to invoke that function instead of calling the function directly.
E.g. instead of:
<pre><code><?php _sfce( 'some_plugin_function_that_echoes', 'argument' ); ?>
</code></pre>
Do:
<pre><code><?php apply_filters( '_sfce', 'some_plugin_function_that_echoes', 'argument' ); ?>
</code></pre>
If you’re relying on the return value of a function and this plugin gets deactivated, note that the <code>apply_filters()</code> call will return the name of the function you intended to call, so you should check the return value to ensure the function got called.
Instead of:
<pre><code><?php $x = _sfc( 'some_plugin_function', 'argument' ); ?>
</code></pre>
Do:
<pre><code><?php
 $x = apply_filters( '_sfcq', 'some_plugin_function', 'argument' );
 if ( $x !== 'some_plugin_function' ) {
 // Work with the value of $x here.
 } else {
 // The Safe Function Call plugin isn't active.
 $x = 0; // Maybe set the variable to something that makes sense in this scenario.
 }
?>
</code></pre>
Links: <a href="https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/safe-function-call/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/safe-function-call/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/safe-function-call/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> | <a href="https://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a>
<h3>Developer Documentation</h3>
Developer documentation can be found in <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/safe-function-call/blob/master/DEVELOPER-DOCS.md" rel="nofollow ugc">DEVELOPER-DOCS.md</a>. That documentation covers the template tags and hooks provided by the plugin.
As an overview, these are the template tags provided by the plugin:
<ul>
<li><code>_sfc()</code> : Safely call a function and get its return value.</li>
<li><code>_sfce()</code> : Safely call a function and echo its sanitized return value.</li>
<li><code>_sfcf()</code> : Safely call a function; if it doesn’t exist, then a fallback function (if specified) is called.</li>
<li><code>_sfcm()</code> : Safely call a function; if it doesn’t exist, then echo a message (if provided).</li>
</ul>
These are the hooks provided by the plugin. They are intended for filter invocation usage rather than typical content filtering.
<ul>
<li><code>_sfc</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>_sfc()</code> in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the function won’t cause errors in your site.</li>
<li><code>_sfce</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>_sfce()</code> in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the function won’t cause errors in your site.</li>
<li><code>_sfcf</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>_sfcf()</code> in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the function won’t cause errors in your site.</li>
<li><code>_sfcm</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>_sfcm()</code> in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the function won’t cause errors in your site.</li>
</ul>

Safe Function Call

Safely and easily call functions that may not be available (such as those provided by a plugin that gets deactivated)

Disable Search vs Safe Function Call