Invalid length search inputs should be handled more cleanly

[jonoaldersonwp]

Very long search requests, such as ​this one currently outputs malformed canonicals, hreflang values, rel next vals, etc.

Specifically, the values for these either output an additional trailing slash (e.g., https://wordpress.org/plugins/search//), or, output a chunk of the raw URL.

In both cases, the value for these tags should be https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/.

[Otto42]

For reference, the exact breakage point seems to be at 1600 characters. I suspect this to be a limit in the underlying search engine.

[dd32]

Replying to Otto42:

For reference, the exact breakage point seems to be at 1600 characters. I suspect this to be a limit in the underlying search engine.

After a lot of digging around, I found the culprit - WordPress.

​r25632 added an upper bound of 1600 characters for search requests, just ignoring it after that.

The plugin directory actually limits it to 200char for searching purposes, but it's discarded by core prior to that point.

[dd32]

In 9488:

Plugin Directory: Search: When a search request >=1600 characters is made, redirect back to the homepage like we do with empty searches.

Fixes #4322.

[jonoaldersonwp]

Nice one! :D