Enable remote search in Themes if custom themes are supported #24262

pmusolino · 2025-03-19T22:55:11Z

Dependent on this PR wordpress-mobile/WordPressKit-iOS#834

This PR partially improves the search functionality within the Theme by enhancing its capabilities. Previously, the search was limited to locally fetched themes and did not include elements that had not been paginated. Now, it works remotely for blogs that support custom themes. The endpoint used for this case supports search, whereas other endpoints, such as the one utilized by the getThemesForBlogId method, do not support remote search functionality.

However, the search is available for getWPThemesPage (which calls the v2.0/themes endpoint) only if at least 3 characters are added in the search bar. For this reason, this limitation has also been handled in the app. For all other endpoints where remote searching is not available, the search continues to work locally.

Keep in mind during your tests that searching through the API does not only look for matches in the title of the theme. Therefore, when you type a string, you may see other related themes as well.

To test:

Custom Themes not supported

Create a new blog in WP.com.
Navigate to Themes view.
Try searching by a keyword. You should be able to search only through locally fetched themes.

Custom Themes supported

Select a blog where Custom Themes are enabled.
Navigate to Themes view.
While typing, you can filter themes in both sections: uploaded themes and WordPress.com themes. Try to search specifically for a theme that does not appear in the first page of WordPress.com themes, like the one mentioned in the original issue: scrawl.

Regression Notes

Potential unintended areas of impact
What I did to test those areas of impact (or what existing automated tests I relied on)
What automated tests I added (or what prevented me from doing so)

PR submission checklist:

I have completed the Regression Notes.
I have considered adding unit tests for my changes.
I have considered adding accessibility improvements for my changes.
I have considered if this change warrants user-facing release notes and have added them to RELEASE-NOTES.txt if necessary.

Testing checklist:

… integration

…wift - Apply immediate local search when search text changes - Perform remote search for WordPress.com themes with 3+ characters - Update predicates to include local search conditions for custom themes - Refactor comments for clarity on search behavior and conditions

- Modify `ThemeBrowserViewController.swift` to include `resetRemoteSearch` method - Integrate `resetRemoteSearch` in search logic to reset search state upon search text changes - Adjust logic to handle shorter search queries that follow longer ones by resetting remote search - Ensure local results reload consistently after search operations

- Update test to use nil instead of empty string for search in ThemeServiceTests.m

- Change `fileprivate` to `private` for several functions and variables in ThemeBrowserViewController.swift - Simplify guard statement in `updateSearchName` function - Update comment in `customThemesBrowsePredicate` function

dangermattic · 2025-03-19T22:55:46Z

	1 Warning
⚠️	This PR is assigned to the milestone 25.9. The due date for this milestone has already passed. Please assign it to a milestone with a later deadline or check whether the release for this milestone has already been finished.

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wpmobilebot · 2025-03-19T23:08:15Z

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in WordPress Alpha by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	WordPress Alpha
	Configuration	Release-Alpha
	Build Number	pr24262-69c5b90
	Version	25.8
	Bundle ID	org.wordpress.alpha
	Commit	`69c5b90`
	App Center Build	WPiOS - One-Offs #11757

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wpmobilebot · 2025-03-19T23:11:21Z

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in Jetpack Alpha by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	Jetpack Alpha
	Configuration	Release-Alpha
	Build Number	pr24262-69c5b90
	Version	25.8
	Bundle ID	com.jetpack.alpha
	Commit	`69c5b90`
	App Center Build	jetpack-installable-builds #10783

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kean · 2025-03-20T13:36:01Z

Hey, thanks for addressing it!

I tested the steps from the reported issue, and was able to find the theme:

Simulator.Screen.Recording.-.iPhone.16.Pro.-.2025-03-20.at.09.29.39.mp4

For all other endpoints where remote searching is not available, the search continues to work locally.

Can we eliminate local search? What are the scenarios under which remote searching was not available?

We were in a similar situation with the search for your posts that was local and broken in the same way. It now searches exclusively using the search endpoint – no local results are ever shown.

I've noticed some minor glitches when searching. It would initially show "No matching results" but then, presumably when the app gets the response, it would show the results. Eliminating local search (for anything other than custom theme?) should address it.

Search term is less than 3 characters (we'll only search locally for short terms)

Does the endpoint support searching with fewer characters? I'd expect to be able to type a single character and return some results that start with it.

kean · 2025-03-20T13:26:21Z

Modules/Package.swift

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ let package = Package(
        .package(url: "https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/MediaEditor-iOS", branch: "task/spm-support"),
        .package(url: "https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/NSObject-SafeExpectations", from: "0.0.6"),
        .package(url: "https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/NSURL-IDN", branch: "trunk"),
-        .package(url: "https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPressKit-iOS", branch: "wpios-edition"),
+        .package(url: "https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPressKit-iOS", branch: "add-search-param-in-theme-service-remote"),


Please make sure to update it to point to wpios-edition before merging.

pmusolino · 2025-03-21T17:03:56Z

Thanks for testing it @kean!

Can we eliminate local search? What are the scenarios under which remote searching was not available?

The scenarios where remote searching is not available are:

Blog doesn't support custom themes (eg. free WP.com plans)
User's installed themes.

So, I think it's important to maintain local search for two reasons. First, while the user is searching remotely, we also display and search locally among the user's installed themes. Plus, if a user is on WP.com free plans, we should allow them to search among available themes, which currently number 170+ (around 4 pages of pagination).
It's not ideal, but it's probably definitely better than removing this functionality.

I've noticed some minor glitches when searching. It would initially show "No matching results" but then, presumably when the app gets the response, it would show the results. Eliminating local search (for anything other than custom theme?) should address it.

I was not able to replicate this issue, even when typing slowly. Keep in mind that remote searching uses its own logic and is not perfect in my experiments. For example, I tried searching for the final part of a text and the theme was not found, while typing the initials of the theme did yield results.

Does the endpoint support searching with fewer characters? I'd expect to be able to type a single character and return some results that start with it.

Unfortunately, no, but it's not documented anywhere, and indeed this case is handled. If we send the search with fewer than 3 characters to the API request, it always returns 0 results, which is far from ideal. Maybe this can be improved on the UX side by explicitly asking users to add at least 3 characters.

…153-cannot-search-for-themes-if-not-already-downloaded # Conflicts: # WordPress.xcworkspace/xcshareddata/swiftpm/Package.resolved

wpmobilebot · 2025-03-28T14:48:05Z

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in Jetpack by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	Jetpack
	Configuration	Release-Alpha
	Build Number	`26920`
	Version	`PR #24262`
	Bundle ID	`com.jetpack.alpha`
	Commit	`1d552f7`
	Installation URL	1fc6to2gbp5e8

Automatticians: You can use our internal self-serve MC tool to give yourself access to those builds if needed.

wpmobilebot · 2025-03-28T14:48:15Z

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in WordPress by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	WordPress
	Configuration	Release-Alpha
	Build Number	`26920`
	Version	`PR #24262`
	Bundle ID	`org.wordpress.alpha`
	Commit	`1d552f7`
	Installation URL	5pot4107tb69o

Automatticians: You can use our internal self-serve MC tool to give yourself access to those builds if needed.

…-already-downloaded

pmusolino · 2025-03-31T12:40:33Z

@kean I requested a new review since now the PR is pointing to the right branch of WordPressKit

kean · 2025-03-31T17:56:48Z

WordPress/Classes/ViewRelated/Themes/ThemeBrowserViewController.swift

+
+        // For regular themes, add local search predicate if:
+        // 1. Not using custom themes feature, or
+        // 2. Search term is less than 3 characters (we'll only search locally for short terms)


Just noting that it's an unfortunate limitation.

pmusolino added 9 commits March 18, 2025 11:07

Add search parameter to getThemesForBlog method

046901b

Add remote search functionality to theme synchronization

2a5b67e

Update WordPressKit-iOS dependency to use branch for search parameter…

e8f6e13

… integration

Clear search parameter if empty in getThemesForBlog method

e2b137c

fix: comment

90c32a4

- Remove redundant NSParameterAssert for search in ThemeService.m

d768d1d

- Update test to use nil instead of empty string for search in ThemeServiceTests.m

pmusolino added [Type] Bug Themes Bug labels Mar 19, 2025

pmusolino added this to the 25.9 milestone Mar 19, 2025

pmusolino requested review from crazytonyli and kean March 19, 2025 22:55

pmusolino mentioned this pull request Mar 19, 2025

Add search param in getWPThemesPage method and migrate endpoint to v2.0 wordpress-mobile/WordPressKit-iOS#834

Merged

2 tasks

fix: Trailing Whitespace Violation

69c5b90

kean reviewed Mar 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

kean removed the Bug label Mar 20, 2025

pmusolino added 2 commits March 28, 2025 15:30

update: point back to wpios-edition for WordPressKit-iOS

2f809cc

Merge commit '58f73c0d7d91f5cfc75c26a5dcf08eae8d3e2030' into issue/23…

41d0f61

…153-cannot-search-for-themes-if-not-already-downloaded # Conflicts: # WordPress.xcworkspace/xcshareddata/swiftpm/Package.resolved

pmusolino added 2 commits March 31, 2025 11:59

fix: ThemeServiceTests

39a46f1

Merge branch 'trunk' into issue/23153-cannot-search-for-themes-if-not…

1d552f7

…-already-downloaded

pmusolino requested a review from kean March 31, 2025 12:39

kean approved these changes Mar 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

pmusolino added this pull request to the merge queue Mar 31, 2025

github-merge-queue bot removed this pull request from the merge queue due to failed status checks Mar 31, 2025

kean added this pull request to the merge queue Mar 31, 2025

Merged via the queue into trunk with commit a28d224 Mar 31, 2025
25 checks passed

kean deleted the issue/23153-cannot-search-for-themes-if-not-already-downloaded branch March 31, 2025 20:19

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