diff --git app/controllers/search_controller.rb app/controllers/search_controller.rb
index 9bc9926..41dc6af 100644
--- app/controllers/search_controller.rb
+++ app/controllers/search_controller.rb
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 class SearchController < ApplicationController
   before_filter :find_optional_project
+  accept_api_auth :index
 
   def index
     @question = params[:q] || ""
@@ -73,7 +74,10 @@ class SearchController < ApplicationController
     else
       @question = ""
     end
-    render :layout => false if request.xhr?
+    respond_to do |format|
+      format.html { render :layout => false if request.xhr? }
+      format.api  { @results ||= []; render :layout => false }
+    end
   end
 
 private
diff --git app/views/search/index.api.rsb app/views/search/index.api.rsb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..831f04b
--- /dev/null
+++ app/views/search/index.api.rsb
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+api.array :results do
+  @results.each do |result|
+    api.result do
+      api.id          result.id
+      api.title       result.event_title
+      api.type        result.event_type
+      api.url         url_for(result.event_url(:only_path => false))
+      api.description result.event_description
+      api.datetime    result.event_datetime
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git test/integration/api_test/search_test.rb test/integration/api_test/search_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..961fabd
--- /dev/null
+++ test/integration/api_test/search_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Redmine - project management software
+# Copyright (C) 2006-2015  Jean-Philippe Lang
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
+
+require File.expand_path('../../../test_helper', __FILE__)
+
+class Redmine::ApiTest::SearchTest < Redmine::ApiTest::Base
+  fixtures :projects, :issues
+
+  test "GET /search.xml should return xml content" do
+    get '/search.xml'
+
+    assert_response :success
+    assert_equal 'application/xml', @response.content_type
+  end
+
+  test "GET /search.json should return json content" do
+    get '/search.json'
+
+    assert_response :success
+    assert_equal 'application/json', @response.content_type
+
+    json = ActiveSupport::JSON.decode(response.body)
+    assert_kind_of Hash, json
+    assert_kind_of Array, json['results']
+  end
+
+  test "GET /search.xml without query strings should return empty results" do
+    get '/search.xml', :q => '', :all_words => ''
+
+    assert_response :success
+    assert_equal 0, assigns(:results).size
+  end
+
+  test "GET /search.xml with query strings should return results" do
+    get '/search.xml', :q => 'recipe subproject commit', :all_words => ''
+
+    assert_response :success
+    assert_not_empty(assigns(:results))
+
+    assert_select 'results[type=array]' do
+      assert_select 'result', :count => assigns(:results).count
+      assigns(:results).size.times.each do |i|
+        assert_select 'result' do
+          assert_select 'id',          :text => assigns(:results)[i].id.to_s
+          assert_select 'title',       :text => assigns(:results)[i].event_title
+          assert_select 'type',        :text => assigns(:results)[i].event_type
+          assert_select 'url',         :text => url_for(assigns(:results)[i].event_url(:only_path => false))
+          assert_select 'description', :text => assigns(:results)[i].event_description
+          assert_select 'datetime'
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end