Smart Content Filter

Filters & Sorting

Version: 1.6.0

Filters & Sorting

Everything visitors use to narrow results lives on the Filters tab. Settings there are grouped to match the admin form. Default sort lives on Ordering.

Filter Panel
  • Filters Display: Always show, Hide filters (no filter UI), or Toggle button beside the grid/list controls.
  • Filters Toggle Default: Start Open or Closed when Toggle button is used.
  • Sticky Filter Toolbar: Keeps filters, results count, and the Load more bar visible while scrolling.
  • Show Results Count: Live count such as Showing 6 of 24.
  • Empty State Message: Custom text when no articles match.
  • Shareable Filter URLs: Persist category (including multi-select), search, tag(s), custom fields, author, date, sort, view mode, and page in the query string. Only active filters are written, so a single tag filter reads ?scf_143_tag=16 instead of a full parameter list. Reset clears the module's filter parameters from the URL.
Category Filter
  • Enable Category Filter: Set to No to hide the category tabs, pills, or dropdown and keep the other filters. The listing still shows the categories selected on Content Source.
  • Show All Filter: Adds an All option before category filters.
  • Category Filter Style: Tabs (underline bar), Pills (filled chips), or Dropdown.
  • Category Selection: Single (default, one category at a time) or Multiple (combine categories, like the tag filter).
  • Enable Subcategory Drill-down: Shows child category tabs when a parent category is selected. Available in Single mode only.
Search
  • Enable Search: Filters articles by title, intro, or both depending on Search Scope. Title and intro includes the text above the Read more break, not only the title.
Tag Filter
  • Enable Tag Filter: Shows tags used in the module article pool.
  • Tag Filter Style: Dropdown (default) or clickable Pills for catalogue-style browsing.
  • Tag Selection: Single (default) or Multiple.
  • Tag Match Mode (multiple only): Match any selected tag (OR) or Match all selected tags (AND).
  • Show All Tags: Clears the active tag filter.
  • Include Tags / Exclude Tags: Limit the list by tag ID, name, or title.
  • For tag-led catalogues, use Tag Pills + Multiple and set Enable Category Filter to No.
Language-aware Tags

When Filter by Current Language is enabled on Content Source, the tag filter only lists tags used by articles in the active language (or All), and only tags whose Language is All or matches that language. You do not need language-specific Include Tags lists for a normal Spanish and English setup.

Include Tags and Exclude Tags still work for limiting the list by ID, name, or title when you want a fixed subset in every language.

Author, Date & Custom Fields
  • Enable Author Filter: Filter by article author.
  • Enable Date Filter: Filter by publish date range (applied in SQL so totals and pagination stay correct).
  • Frontend Custom Field Filters: Up to two custom fields as text or select filters (Auto, Text, or Dropdown).
Default Filters
  • Default Category IDs: Optional comma-separated category IDs applied on first load and when Reset is clicked.
  • Default Tag IDs: Optional comma-separated tag IDs applied on first load and Reset.
  • Default Custom Field Value / Default Second Custom Field Value: Optional values that pre-fill the custom field filters.
  • Lock Default Filters: When Yes, hides the category, tag, or custom field controls that have defaults set, so visitors cannot clear the prefiltered view. Locked values are also enforced on Ajax and ignore conflicting shareable URL parameters for those controls.
  • Shareable URL parameters override unlocked defaults. Leave defaults empty to keep the usual first-load behaviour (all categories / no tag / empty fields).
Sort, View & Reset
  • Enable Sorting: Frontend sorting dropdown (Default, Newest, Oldest, Title A-Z, Title Z-A, Featured First, Manual Ordering).
  • Grid/List Toggle: Optional icon toggle in the top-right chrome, with a default view mode.
  • Show Reset Button: Clears filters and restores default filter values. Choose Text or Icon display.
Ordering Tab
  • Ordering and Direction: Server-side fallback sort field and direction when the visitor has not chosen a frontend sort.
Allowed Sort Options

On Filters, under Sort, View and Reset, use Allowed Sort Options to choose which choices appear in the Sort dropdown (for example only Newest and Oldest). Leave the field empty to show every option. Enable Sorting must be Yes.