Use wp_get_recent_posts with search term

It should just be a matter of setting the 's' argument of wp_get_recent_posts() (or just get_posts()) to the search term:

$args = array(
    'numberposts' => $numberposts,
    'offset' => $offset,
    'category__not_in' => array(391),
    'category' => $category,
    'orderby' => 'post_date',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    's' => $searchterm,
);

$recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( $args, ARRAY_A );

But yeah, as discussed in the comments, I wouldn’t suggest this method of display search results. If you’re using search.php correctly, the main query/loop will already contain search results.

A better question might be how to get posts from the main query into your layout function. Otherwise you’re just needlessly performing the search twice, and you’re going to be running into issues with pagination, because you won’t be using the loop and template hierarchy properly.

Related Posts:

  1. Build a content and excerpt grid loop with paging and options for # of posts
  2. Rewriting search and pagination base
  3. How to create a WP_Query to search the Title or Tag?
  4. Why does “get_option” pull in the older value in options.php, rather than the newer value, on submission of a form?
  5. How to add 2 posts under another post? Formatting should be intact
  6. How do I dynamically generate args for wp_query?
  7. Remove query string specific key value
  8. If search results empty then execute certain code
  9. Count the number of times the search form template gets included on a page
  10. have_posts() execution failure
  11. How to do multiple searches (with logical OR) in WP_Query in hook pre_get_posts?
  12. Can’t search posts using WP_QUERY inside AJAX Function
  13. WordPress pagination not working with search page
  14. WP Query with custom Shortcode
  15. Recent Posts slider, using WP_Query(), loads duplicate sliders
  16. How to add seperate classes to no-search-result and found-search-result pages on wordrpess search – is_search()
  17. How to prevent WP_Query function from returning all posts when empty?
  18. Display a specific category of products in shop page and disable code for specific actions
  19. Get users that likes the post
  20. Search not showing all results
  21. Remove echo from shortcode
  22. Can anyone offer any help with this function?
  23. Security for data obtained from the database
  24. Exclude posts with specific metadata from search?
  25. Form search query – displaying ACF “Post Object” field as results
  26. WP_Query | IF within $args array | Help me only add specific arguments if the argument is not blank
  27. change the default order of posts only for specific categories
  28. Post not populating for custom post type based on category selection
  29. List post by title length
  30. Custom query vars filters problem with pagination
  31. Display css ONLY on most recent post of specific category?
  32. How to get post category list as select in front-end?
  33. Displaying Event within two given time frames
  34. Search.php gets metadata from first post
  35. How can I modify this code to make the search box include tags and meta
  36. Free search and custom taxonomy query not providing the same result
  37. search.php to search only the post title
  38. Let current user know pending posts counts using wp_query
  39. Output product category link from WP_Query
  40. Isn’t Returning Value While Using SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {$wpdb->prefix}
  41. “pre_get_posts” orderby custom date field in different format?
  42. WordPress Search Ajax + Isotope + InfiniteScroll
  43. Replace a single variable with add_filter
  44. How to exclude meta no index pages from wp_list_pages
  45. Using a new WP_Query inside the loop
  46. meta_query search names when they have middle initials
  47. Limit Search to Product Pages only unless I’m on Blogpage or Blogposts
  48. WP query posts BUT show the most recent and one per author
  49. Ajax filter with loadmore button
  50. posts_per_page displays only 2 posts instead of 4 posts
  51. Delete post meta by serialized meta value
  52. Modify post image in full size
  53. WP_Query To Display Product Of Brand On Taxonomy Page
  54. Custom Post type Ajax search results
  55. Include search tags and users in my search results system
  56. making a search.php query
  57. Showing wordpress latest post thumbnails in slider with auto increment
  58. My query keeps looping infinitely ! how to stop it?
  59. How can the searchform.php know if it’s used on a registered sidebar id ‘sidebar-1’ or ‘sidebar-2’?
  60. How can I include tags in wordpress search without a plugin
  61. How can I display a query in a page?
  62. How to add thumbnails from recent posts to owl-carousel in wordpress automatically?
  63. Display Year and Month from custom field + Age Calculator
  64. insert thumbnail image from php script
  65. Weird Behaviour: Not all WordPress Posts appearing
  66. List sibling pages widget, exclude current page
  67. How to get category pages to look like a certain archive page?
  68. Search box background on a different page template
  69. How to modify this function to exclude also the post belonging to a specific category?
  70. The search doesn’t work properly
  71. a problem in class in class-wp-hook.php
  72. /page/2/ redirect to 404
  73. Add adjacent post function inside custom recent post function
  74. How to set and use global variables? Or why not to use them at all
  75. Enqueue Javascript Correctly for 3.5
  76. Add footer.php to WordPress child theme
  77. how to display active, upcoming and past event with featured listing with pagination
  78. Restrict WordPress File Type Uploads by User Type
  79. How to slow down server response
  80. Click loads template via ajax
  81. Change Navigation Bar based on logged in or not
  82. How to remove or change the “W” icon in “My Sites”?
  83. Woocommerce: hook action/filter I could use to add variation id and price with each attribute opt on WooCommerce Rest api
  84. getting logged in user info (wp-load.php) from parent directory
  85. Where is this function’s callback getting its arguments from?
  86. Order a WP_Query by meta value where the value is an array
  87. Function to call either single post or category
  88. search and add in wordpress content
  89. Updating Metadata with Shortcode
  90. How do I add a function to parent theme
  91. Are there any drawbacks on opening a session_start in functions.php and header.php?
  92. Search only for posts with specific metadata?
  93. ajaxurl usage for a custom function
  94. oembed facebook link?
  95. Open/closed function [closed]
  96. site_url() returns with additional backslashes
  97. Warning: Attempt to read property “term_id” on int – Woocommerce
  98. How to initialise WP_Query on the basis of a specific meta_value and continue iterating rest?
  99. How to sort search result by post_title, then by post_content
  100. Custom Admin Menu Report for Specific User ID