Low Search in fields: combine different search_modes

Question

I have a Low Search form that looks like this:

{exp:low_search:form result_page="search/results"}

<input name="search:title" type="text" value="" placeholder="Title"/>

<select name="search:order-model">
<option value="">Select a model</option> 
{exp:low_options:order-model parse="inward"}
  {options}<option value="{option:value}">{option:value}</option>{/options}
{/exp:low_options:order-model}
</select>

<input class="submit" type="submit" value="Search" />

{/exp:low_search:form}

The customer can search by title, model, or both. Now, for the title field I would like to use 'any' mode (return all entries that contain at list part of keyword) while for order-model field I need exact match (e.g. if user searches for m-200 it should omit km-2001 from seach results)

Is there any way to achieve that. It looks like that is probably possible with filters, but what about search form?

Answer 1

tl;dr: use exact="search:order-model" on your Results tag.

You're not using the Keywords filter here, but the Field Search filter. Hence, the search_mode parameter is not used; it's only used in conjunction with the Keywords filter. The Field Search filter is basically the native search:field_name parameter on steroids, so you can mimic what you'd normally do with such a parameter.

For example, this: search:order-model="=m-200" would look for exactly the value "m-200" in the target field. This is the same as using search:order-model="m-200" exact="search:order-model", which you can split up with LS into a form field and parameter on the Results tag. You've got the former param as a dropdown in your form, so you should add the latter to the Results tag.