FAQ

What is the difference between Tabs and Pills?
Tabs use an underline bar with a highlighted active tab. Pills use separate filled chip buttons. Dropdown replaces both with a select menu.
Where do I find each setting?
Content Source (what articles load), Filters (visitor controls), Ordering (default sort), Article Arrangement (layout and columns), Card Appearance (look and hover), Card Content (what shows on cards), Advanced (CSS, schema, cache).
How do I hide the filter panel?
Set Filters Display to Hide filters, or use Toggle button so visitors open filters only when needed.
How do I hide only the category filter?
On Filters, under Category Filter, set Enable Category Filter to No. Search, tags, sort, and the other controls stay in place. No custom CSS is needed.
Can visitors select more than one category?
Yes. On Filters, set Category Selection to Multiple. Subcategory drill-down stays available in Single mode only.
Can the page open already filtered?
Yes. Set Default Category IDs, Default Tag IDs, and/or Default Custom Field Values on Filters. Shareable URL parameters override those defaults unless Lock Default Filters is Yes.
What does Lock Default Filters do?
It hides the category, tag, or custom field controls that have defaults set, and keeps those values applied even if a shared URL tries to change them. Use it for agent or topic pages that should stay prefiltered.
Does the module create its own content type?
No. It uses standard Joomla articles, categories, tags, featured state, custom fields, images, language, and access levels.
Can I keep HTML in intro text?
Yes. Set Intro Text Format to Safe HTML. Markup is sanitised. Use Intro Text Limit 0 for the full intro.
Why do I see {loadmoduleid ...} on cards?
Card intros do not run content plugins. Turn on Strip Content Plugin Syntax (Card Content, default Yes) to hide those codes from the teaser.
Where do images come from?
Intro image, full image, a custom media/URL field, or combinations with fallback. Configure Image Source and optional Image Custom Field on Card Content.
Can I switch between Grid and List view?
Yes. Enable Grid/List Toggle on the Filters tab and choose a default view. The visitor preference is remembered per module.
Can filtered views be shared?
Yes. Enable Shareable Filter URLs on Filters (Filter Panel). Only active filters are written, so a tag filter looks like ?scf_143_tag=16, multi-category like ?scf_143_cat=145,146, and custom field like ?scf_143_field=Agencies. Paste that URL into a fresh browser and the page opens with the same filters selected.
How do I turn off all card hover effects?
Set Image Hover Effect to None, Hover Shadow to None, and Hover Lift to 0.
Does it require jQuery?
No. The frontend uses vanilla JavaScript.
Can tags show as clickable pills?
Yes. Set Tag Filter Style to Pills. Use Tag Selection Multiple for catalogues where items have several tags, and choose Match any or Match all.
Search icon overlaps the placeholder text
Update the latest version. Filter toolbar CSS is protected against template input padding overrides while Disable Module CSS is off.
Can one module serve Spanish and English tags?
Yes, in the latest version. Keep Filter by Current Language on, use language-specific articles and tags (set Language on each tag under Components > Tags), and assign the same module to both language menus. Include Tags is not required as a language workaround.
How do I translate Search, Tag, Sort, and other filter labels?
Those strings are standard Joomla language constants. Use System > Manage > Language Overrides for each frontend language. To see the exact key on the page, set System > Global Configuration > System > Debug Language to Yes, then turn it off when finished.
Can I show only Newest and Oldest in Sort?
Yes, in the latest version. On Filters, open Allowed Sort Options and select only those values. Leave the field empty to keep every Sort option.
Can I add an RSS feed without a Category Blog menu item?
Yes, in the latest version. On Content Source, set RSS Feed Link to Yes. The module adds RSS and Atom discovery links to the page head for the RSS Feed Category, or the first selected Content Source category when none is chosen. The feed lists category articles from core Joomla; it does not follow live tag, search, or sort filters.
Feed link opens an article page

If your site's RSS or Atom feed link opens an article (or another wrong page) instead of the feed, a server redirect rule is often the cause.

Many sites keep an old blog path and redirect it to a newer one. Common tools for that are Apache RedirectMatch / Redirect, or nginx rewrite / return. Those rules usually look only at the path. They do not care that the request is a feed (format=feed in the query string). So a feed URL that still uses the old path gets redirected the same way as a normal page visit, and the browser lands on an article or catalogue page instead of the feed.

What to check
1. Open the feed link and watch whether the address bar changes from an old path to a new one.
2. Look at your Apache or nginx config (or your host's redirect panel) for rules that rewrite that old path.
3. Confirm the final URL no longer identifies a category feed (missing format=feed, or missing category context).
Apache (mod_rewrite)

Skip the redirect when the query string contains format=feed. Example: redirect /old-blog to /blog, but leave feed requests alone:
```
RewriteEngine On

# Do not redirect feed requests
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !(^|&)format=feed(&|$)

# Redirect the old blog path to the new one
RewriteRule ^old-blog(/.*)?$ /blog$1 [R=301,L]
```
Prefer RewriteRule with a RewriteCond on the query string over a bare RedirectMatch when feeds share the same path you are retiring.

nginx

Same idea: only rewrite when the request is not a feed.
```
location = /old-blog {
    if ($args !~ "(^|&)format=feed(&|$)") {
        return 301 /blog;
    }
}
```
Adjust the paths to match your old and new aliases. After you deploy the change, hard-refresh the page and open the feed link again. It should stay on a URL that still includes format=feed and load as RSS or Atom XML (or your feed reader), not as an article page.

Redirects that preserve the query string are safer for feeds than redirects that drop it. Excluding format=feed is the simplest durable fix when an old alias must keep redirecting for normal page traffic. If you use a CDN or a host redirect UI in front of Apache or nginx, apply the same exception there.