How to update the plugin to version 2.0 ( not needed for 2.1 )

If your plugin has not been updated automatically, you can go to the Plugins menu in your admin dashboard, search for YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search, and update it manually.

Once your plugin is updated to version 2.0, you can go to YITH > Ajax Search. There, you will find the following modal window:

 

 

 

You just have to click on “Update the search form to the advanced version” so your plugin is completely updated. Please, keep in mind that the search box can now be modified by the plugin and as soon as you update it, you will lose the changes you have inserted on the code side in the template of the old plugin. But don’t worry! You can easily recreate it directly in the plugin panel.

In case you happen to close the modal window above instead of clicking on the update button, you can open it again by clicking on this sentence you will find below some options:

Please, note: the old search form will be supported until January 15, 2024. After that date, the form will be automatically updated.

Once the plugin is completely updated, you will find a new redesigned dashboard with more and better options.

If you used the shortcode to add the search form to your website with the previous version of the plugin, you won’t have to replace it, but you will have to configure it because any previously made customizations will be lost. You can do this in the new Search Shortcodes section where you can create and customize the search forms you can add to your website through shortcodes. You will find a shortcode titled “Default” that’s created by the plugin from the previous version you were using:

 

To start customizing the shortcode, just click on the pencil icon to the right and you will find five tabs with all the necessary options to customize your search form:

 

If you were using the widget instead, you will find that it is automatically replaced by the plugin when migrating to version 2.0. You should then have the following widget containing the “Default” search shortcode in Appearance > Widgets:

 

 

So, the widget will keep working but your previous configuration will be lost. To configure the search form again, you can go to the plugin dashboard > Search Shortcodes and edit the “Default” search shortcode as shown above.

 

In case you want to replace the widget in Appearance > Widgets with the new Gutenberg block, you can look for the “Classic Search” block:

 

 

After adding it, you will find the blocks it contains to the left and the options for each block to the right:

 

You can also find the Gutenberg block to add and customize the search form when creating/editing your pages:

 

 

Here’s a glance at some of the customization options available:

 

Last but not least, one of the most important sections we suggest visiting is Search Fields where you can decide which fields will be used to search in your shop and what the priority of each field is. For example, in the following screenshot, the search engine will search in products’ short description first, description second, and product categories last:

 

And you’re done! You have successfully updated the plugin to version 2.0, now go ahead and start customizing the search form for your store!

 

Note: this procedure is no longer necessary for the upgrade to version 2.1 where everything will be automatic.