AI Search for ProcessWire

Overview

A ProcessWire site is built around its pages, and visitors know what they want but not what you called it. They type "when are you open at the weekend" and your search finds nothing, because none of those words is in the title of your Opening hours page. The AI Search Bar answers what they mean, and finds it.

The module puts the bar on your site without any template work. We read your pages ourselves, so there is no API key to create and nothing to paste.

Requirements

• ProcessWire 3.0.165 or later.
• PHP 7.2 or later.
• Your server has to be able to make outgoing HTTPS requests, because the module talks to us directly. Most hosts allow this.

Installing the Module

Download the module, then:

1. In your admin, go to Modules, open the New tab and upload the zip. Or unzip it yourself and copy the AsyntaiSearch folder into /site/modules/, then press Refresh on the Modules screen.
2. Press Install next to Asyntai AI Search. The admin screen installs with it.
3. Go to Setup → Asyntai AI Search and press Connect Asyntai. A window opens where you sign in or create a free account.
4. Wait a few minutes while we read your site. The screen tells you when the bar is live.

You can also install it from the ProcessWire modules directory: on the Modules screen, open New, enter the class name AsyntaiSearch and press Download and Install.

Choosing Where the Bar Appears

There is one setting, Where the bar goes, with two answers.

In place of my search box

The bar finds the search form your templates already render, hides it, and takes exactly the same place. Nothing in your templates has to be edited. If a visitor presses Enter without picking a result, your usual search page still opens, so nothing they already know stops working.

A ProcessWire site has exactly the search box its developer wrote, and some have none. On a site like that this setting has nothing to replace, and the module screen says so. Put the bar in your templates instead.

Only where my templates put it

Add this to a template, where the bar should appear:

It prints a container the bar renders into, and it prints nothing at all while the bar is off, so your template is left exactly as it was. Your own CSS styles the container, so the bar sits in the layout like anything else you put there.

The Other Settings

• Search box to replace. Leave it empty and we find the form ourselves. Fill in a CSS selector only if we pick the wrong one, for example header form.uk-search.
• Placeholder text. Leave it empty and each visitor sees it in their own language.
• Accent colour. Leave it empty to use the colour set in your Asyntai dashboard.

All of these are stored in the module's own database table, together with the connection itself. Nothing is written to a file, so nothing secret is ever committed or deployed with your site.

Who Can Open the Screen

The module creates a permission called asyntai-search. Superusers have it already. To let another role connect the site or change the settings, give that role the permission under Access → Roles.

Trying It Before Your Visitors Do

The module screen has a Try your search bar button. It opens your real search bar, on your real content, in a new tab. Searches you run there do not count against your monthly allowance.

Plans and Limits

A site connected through this module runs the bar on any plan, including the free one. Your monthly reply allowance still applies, and searches and chat replies share it. The module screen shows how much of the month is left.

When the allowance runs out, the bar removes itself and your own search box comes straight back. Your visitors keep being able to search. They are never left typing into a box that answers nothing.

The module checks this in the background, so the bar comes back by itself when your allowance resets. You do not have to update or reinstall anything.

What the Bar Searches

Your pages, as we read them from your site. Blog posts, articles and product pages are all pages on your site, so they are read the same way.

If Something Does Not Work

• No bar appears. Open the module screen and read the line under the coloured dot. It says exactly why the bar is off.
• It says your templates have no search box. Add <?= $modules->get('AsyntaiSearch')->renderBar() ?> to a template, and set Where the bar goes to Only where my templates put it.
• Could not reach Asyntai. Your server cannot make outgoing HTTPS requests. Ask your host to allow them.
• The bar replaced the wrong element. Fill in Search box to replace with a CSS selector for the right one.
• ProcessWire signed you out during the connect step. Log in again and press Connect once more.
• The screen is not in the Setup menu. Your role needs the asyntai-search permission.

Disconnecting

Press Disconnect this site on the module screen. The bar stops at once and your usual search takes over. Uninstalling the module removes everything it added, including its own database table, the admin page and the permission.

Using the Chatbot as Well

This module adds the search bar only. To add the chat assistant too, install our separate ProcessWire chatbot module. The two work side by side on the same pages and share the same knowledge base.