Steven Zahm@ Bree Emmerson
Well, one reason for not integrated search is that Connections uses its own custom tables, not a custom post type (CPT). The using custom tables excludes it from being able to be searched from using the WordPress post/page search. Why use custom tables? Well, Connections is older than that WP feature and the db schema for posts are, well, optimized for posts. The db schema of the custom tables Connections uses are more optimized for a relational directory. There are users powering directories with over a thousand categories and hundreds of thousands of entries with no more performance impact than those with a much smaller number. I considered converting Connections to a CPT which would make a bunch of things easier for me but scalability would suffer because some of the advanced queries I can do now would be CTP meta queries and those are quite expensive to perform. I only mention this because if Connections used a CTP, then integrating with the core WP search would be possible. Another benefit to the custom table useage is I more control and can implement a search method called FULLTEXT search, which Connections will do by default, if the current db setup supports it. This can yield more accurate and rated results. This is superior to the way WP does page/page search. (plugins are available that can enable better WP search with FULLTEXT support, thought I’d mention that as sort of a disclaimer)
So, I hope that kind of explains the technicalities in a way that makes sense to you.
Lastly, there is a search widget that comes with the Widget Pack. Drop that widget anywhere a widget can be added to the theme you’re using.
Hope that helps!