Searchips Search By Image for WooCommerce brings visual search to your online store. Shoppers can upload an image from desktop or mobile devices to find matching and visually similar products in seconds.

The free version provides full, unrestricted visual search functionality: unlimited catalog indexing, high-accuracy multimodal vector search via OpenRouter, interactive client-side image cropping, real-time auto-indexing on save, customizable camera triggers, scanner glow accent colors, and an interactive live preview stage.

The settings forms in the free version are 100% clean and fully functional, adhering strictly to WordPress.org guidelines with zero disabled form fields, locked checkboxes, or trialware nag traps.

The plugin powers visual search using Multimodal Vector Embeddings: matches visual features using advanced machine learning models (Strategy 1).

External Services

This plugin connects to external AI services to perform image-based searches and catalog indexing using artificial intelligence models:

OpenRouter (https://openrouter.ai):

– What the service is and what it is used for: OpenRouter is an API gateway used to generate multimodal vector embeddings from product and query images.
– What data is sent and when: Base64-encoded image data and model configuration parameters are sent to OpenRouter when products are indexed or when customers submit a visual search query.
– Terms of Service: https://openrouter.ai/terms
– Privacy Policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy

Copyright and Third-Party Assets

This plugin bundles and relies on the following third-party software:

Cropper.js (v2.1.1)
Source: https://github.com/fengyuanchen/cropperjs
License: MIT
License URI: https://github.com/fengyuanchen/cropperjs/blob/main/LICENSE
Copyright: (c) 2015-present Chen Fengyuan

Features

Multimodal Vector Search: Fast and accurate visual similarity matching powered by AI embeddings.
Unlimited Product Indexing: Asynchronous AJAX indexer processes catalogs of any size with pause and stop controls.
Instant Auto-Indexing: Automatically indexes or re-indexes products immediately upon publishing or updating images.
Interactive Image Cropping: Integrated Cropper.js allows shoppers to crop and focus on specific image details.
Visual Scanning Animation & Live Preview: Classic Laser Line neon scanning effect with customizable accent glow color and real-time live preview stage in settings.
OpenRouter AI Gateway: Seamless connectivity to OpenRouter for multimodal image embeddings.
Frontend Camera Trigger: Automatically placed inside search forms or displayed with the [tsbifw_search_bar] shortcode.
Full Styling Customization: Live color picker, custom icon dimensions, and left/right offsets.
WordPress Reading Settings Integration: Frontend search result count automatically adheres to WordPress archive post limits (posts_per_page).
Dedicated System Logs Tab: View recorded events, copy logs, clear history, and configure retention and logging preferences.
High-Performance Architecture: Bulk pre-primed post caches (_prime_post_caches), cursor-based streaming, and transient query caching.

Upgrade

For stores requiring advanced capabilities, Searchips Pro Addon is available:

Visual Search Analytics Dashboard: Review shopper photo queries with high-resolution 150×150 thumbnails and track unfulfilled demand with zero-result filtering.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) Tracking: Non-blocking telemetry beacons record customer conversions.
Product Variation Images Matching: Index variation images and deep-link shoppers directly to matching color or style variations.
Smart Image Hashing (MD5): Skips remote AI API calls when saving products if image files have not changed, saving API costs.
Direct AI Gateways: Connect directly to your own OpenAI and Google Gemini API keys.
Native Mobile Camera Photo Capture: Mobile shoppers can snap photos directly from their smartphone camera.
Priority Similarity Boost: Apply a configurable similarity bonus (+1% to +30%) to on-sale and featured products.
Category Exclusion Filters: Exclude non-physical, virtual, or gift card categories from vector indexing.
Vision-to-Text Description Search: Strategy 2 descriptive AI keyword queries for broader catalog matches.
5 Additional Futuristic Scanning Animations: AI Vision Reticle, Sonar Radar Sweep, Digital Mesh Grid, Concentric Ripple, and Hologram Shimmer.

Learn more about Searchips Pro.

How-To and Setup

1. Setting Up the AI Connection

Go to WooCommerce -> Search by Image. Select your AI Provider Gateway (OpenRouter) and paste your corresponding API key in the field. You can use the visibility toggle to confirm the key is input correctly without trailing spaces.

2. Running the Product Indexer

Navigate to the “Product Indexer” tab. Choose whether to index featured images, gallery images, or both. Click “Start Indexing”. You can pause or stop the process at any time, or enable “Auto-Index on Save” to automatically index products upon saving.

3. Adding the Search Bar via Shortcode

Insert the shortcode [tsbifw_search_bar] in any post, page, or widget template to display the camera trigger search bar.

4. Customizing Trigger Styles and Scanner Animation

Use the “Styling” settings tab to configure position properties, size, and background colors using the WordPress color picker UI. You can also customize your preferred scanning accent color and test the Laser Line animation with the real-time interactive preview stage.

5. Advanced Capabilities

For advanced enterprise tools including Visual Search Analytics, Variation Indexing, Smart Hashing, and Mobile Camera Capture, see the Upgrade section.

6. Viewing and Managing Logs

Navigate to the “System Logs” tab to toggle database logging, select log retention periods, copy diagnostic logs to your clipboard, or clear log history.

Help and Support

API Authentication Issues: Ensure your API key is correct and active on your chosen provider.
Skipped Products: Products with missing or zero-byte image files are skipped to avoid database error loops.
Cron Indexing: Enable background cron indexing to process product updates automatically in the background.