SniffPress

by wpwebguru

Description

SniffPress is an essential developer tool that lets you search through all your theme and plugin files directly from the WordPress admin dashboard.

Resources

GitHub: https://github.com/viveksoftchure/sniffpress

New in version 1.1:
– Top-level admin menu for easier access
– Search limits to prevent server overload
– Exclusion patterns to skip specific folders/files
– Improved theme editor links for both active and inactive themes
– Enhanced user interface with search statistics

Key Features:
– Search across multiple themes/plugins at once
– Case-sensitive and whole word matching options
– Regular expression support
– Filter by file type (PHP, JS, CSS, etc.)
– Direct links to edit found files (works with any theme/plugin)
– Search limits: control maximum file size and results count
– Exclusion patterns: skip vendor folders, cache directories, etc.
– Direct links to edit found files
– Clean, intuitive interface
– Fast AJAX-powered searching
– Search completion statistics

Perfect for:
– Debugging theme/plugin issues
– Finding specific functions/hooks
– Locating text strings for translation
– Code audits and maintenance

Installation

Upload the sniffpress folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Navigate to SniffPress (top-level menu) to start searching

Screenshots

The main search interface with new options
Example search results with highlighted matches

Faq

What file types are searched by default?

The plugin searches:
– PHP (.php)
– JavaScript (.js)
– CSS (.css)
– Text (.txt)
– Markdown (.md)
– JSON (.json)
– XML (.xml)
– HTML (.html)

Why are some files missing from results?

The plugin automatically skips:
– Binary files (images, fonts, etc.)
– Files over 2MB in size (configurable)
– Vendor directories (node_modules, vendor, .git, etc.)
– Files matching your exclusion patterns

Can I search WordPress core files?

Currently the plugin only searches theme and plugin files. Core file search may be added in future versions.

How do I use exclusion patterns?

Enter comma-separated patterns in the “Exclude patterns” field. Examples:
– node_modules, vendor – skip these common directories
– *.log, cache/ – skip log files and cache directory
– assets/css, includes/ – skip specific folders

What are the recommended search limits?

For large sites, we recommend:
– Max file size: 2-5MB
– Max results: 100-200
This prevents timeouts and memory issues.

Reviews

It works well - too well !!!

By nick6352683 on July 22, 2025

For years I was using Notepad++ to search strings in files, but I could not filter what type of files to search from file types - for example, php, html, css, etc... Also, I had to spend a few seconds to select the location of the folders to search from my hard drive, at least for local development.

This plugin allows me to not only filter which files to search, but also for live sites, I can search on the spot without having to download the themes/plugins if I don't have copies of them on my pc. And at an added bonus, it works really fast.

Not necessarily a must use tool, but a great help and time saver for developers and alike.

Changelog

1.1

Added top-level admin menu for easier access
Added search limits: control max file size and results count
Added exclusion patterns to skip specific folders/files
Improved theme editor links for both active and inactive themes
Enhanced user interface with search statistics
Added welcome message with usage tips
Fixed exclusion pattern matching for directories
Improved plugin main file detection
Better error handling and user feedback
Performance optimizations for large codebases

1.0

Initial release with core search functionality
Support for both themes and plugins
Case-sensitive and whole word matching
File type filtering options