Search additional user fields?

Question

When using the search form, by default Drupal searches Content nodes, and there's a toggle to search Users (search/node vs. search/user). But the search/user appears to only search the default fields for the User nodes (username and email). I've added additional fields (Admin > Config > People > Manage Fields) to User nodes, but those don't get searched. How can I make the default search/user find users by those additional fields?

Answer 1

As far as I know, the easiest way to do this is with views. You can set up a user view with exposed filters for any user field that you need to search. If you want to get a link to your your view on the search page form then, a form alter in a custom module would do it. Obviously make sure your view has a page with a proper path setup. search/your_view etc will work.

Here is a quick example of adding a custom markup field to the search form in drupal 7.

function CUSTOMMODULENAME_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {

 if ($form_id == 'search_form') {

   $form['usercustomsearchlink'] = array(
  '#type' => 'markup',
  '#markup' => '<a href="http://YOURSITE.com/search/YOURVIEWNAME">Search User Fields</a> ',
  '#weight' => 1,
   );

   }
}

That should put a link underneath the search box on the form (after a cache clear). However, I havent been able to figure out how to make it appear only on search/user pages yet so, that link will appear on all search forms.