Here is a working solution (tested as is)
The HTML (could be part of page content)
<input type="text" name="keyword" id="keyword" onkeyup="fetch()"></input>
<div id="datafetch">Search results will appear here</div>
The JavaScript ( goes to your theme’s functions.php )
// add the ajax fetch js
add_action( 'wp_footer', 'ajax_fetch' );
function ajax_fetch() {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
function fetch(){
jQuery.ajax({
url: '<?php echo admin_url('admin-ajax.php'); ?>',
type: 'post',
data: { action: 'data_fetch', keyword: jQuery('#keyword').val() },
success: function(data) {
jQuery('#datafetch').html( data );
}
});
}
</script>
<?php
}
And finally the AJAX call goes to your theme’s functions.php
// the ajax function
add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch' , 'data_fetch');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_data_fetch','data_fetch');
function data_fetch(){
$the_query = new WP_Query( array( 'posts_per_page' => -1, 's' => esc_attr( $_POST['keyword'] ), 'post_type' => 'post' ) );
if( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
while( $the_query->have_posts() ): $the_query->the_post(); ?>
<h2><a href="<?php echo esc_url( post_permalink() ); ?>"><?php the_title();?></a></h2>
<?php endwhile;
wp_reset_postdata();
endif;
die();
}
Addition:
Here’s how I made my AJAX function search precisely:
// the ajax function
add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch' , 'data_fetch');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_data_fetch','data_fetch');
function data_fetch(){
$the_query = new WP_Query(
array(
'posts_per_page' => -1,
's' => esc_attr( $_POST['keyword'] ),
'post_type' => 'post'
)
);
if( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
while( $the_query->have_posts() ): $the_query->the_post();
$myquery = esc_attr( $_POST['keyword'] );
$a = $myquery;
$search = get_the_title();
if( stripos("/{$search}/", $a) !== false) {?>
<h4><a href="<?php echo esc_url( post_permalink() ); ?>"><?php the_title();?></a></h4>
<?php
}
endwhile;
wp_reset_postdata();
endif;
die();
}