Search Options in Customizer

[brainstormforce]

If a theme has more than few settings, finding the setting gets frustrating at times. A search functionality in the customizer will be helpful.

Here is a plugin that we have developed as a POC:
​https://wordpress.org/plugins/customizer-search/

But I believe, it will benefit if it is added in the core.

[dlh]

This is a pretty cool idea! I could definitely see it helping new and experienced users alike.

There would need to be a decent amount of design and UX iteration, plus accessibility testing, before bringing the idea into core, I think. Widgets and nav menus in the Customizer already have search UIs, and it might be worth emulating those. Plus, it would be good to get more opinions about whether it would be preferable to leave the functionality in a plugin.

This might make a great feature to explore at the start of a cycle.

[celloexpressions]

There does seem to be enough interest in the plugin linked above to warrant further study as a potential core feature.

I would personally prefer more liberal use of visible edit shortcuts in the preview as a way to find settings. This feature seems most necessary for themes and plugins that add a large number of customizer settings. Since that's not necessarily the best user experience, I'm not sure if we should encourage that approach by bringing setting search into core.