Smart Content Filter

Instant Category Switching
Display standard Joomla articles with Tabs, Pills, or a Dropdown category filter. Visitors switch categories without leaving the page.

Powered by com_ajax
Cards load through Joomla's Ajax endpoint using each module instance's saved settings for categories, limits, filters, and styling.

Native Joomla Content
Uses articles, categories, tags, featured state, images, publish dates, access levels, and language rules — no custom content table required.

Search, Tags & Sorting
Search by title or intro, filter by Joomla tags, and sort by newest, oldest, title, featured first, or manual ordering.

Author & Date Filters
Optional author dropdown and publish date range filters for directories, news archives, and resource hubs.

Dual Custom Field Filters
Expose up to two Joomla custom fields as text or select filters — ideal for audience, level, location, product type, and more.

Tabs
Classic underline tab bar with a highlighted active category.

Pills
Separate filled chip buttons for a modern filter look.

Subcategory Drill-down
When a parent category is selected, child category tabs appear automatically for deeper browsing.

Load More or Infinite Scroll
Append the next batch of cards with a button or load automatically near the bottom of the list.

Shareable Filter URLs
Category, search, tag, sort, view mode, and load-more page are stored in the URL so filtered views can be bookmarked and shared.

Live Results Count
Shows Showing X of Y that updates after every filter, search, sort, or load-more action.

Grid, News Portal & Magazine
Standard responsive grid, full-width lead story layouts, and magazine-style featured leads with supporting cards.

List, Masonry & Carousel
Row-based list view, masonry flow, or a horizontally scrollable card strip.

Lead Story & Overlays
Choose first or featured lead articles with automatic title-on-image overlays for News Portal and Magazine presets.

Icon Toggle
Optional grid and list icon buttons in the top-right corner of the module.

Remembered Preference
The visitor's choice is saved in a per-module cookie and restored from the URL when shareable state is enabled.

AJAX-Synced Layout
Switching views refreshes card markup server-side so list and grid layouts stay correct after filtering.

Images, Meta & Intro
Intro or full images, category, publish and modified dates, author, tags, hits, reading time, featured badge, intro text, custom fields, and read more link.

Share & Lightbox
Optional share buttons for X, Facebook, and LinkedIn plus an image lightbox with article link.

JSON-LD Schema
Optional structured data output for better search engine understanding of listed articles.

Card Appearance Presets
Default, Outlined, Flat, and Compact styles with distinct borders, backgrounds, and shadows.

Borders, Padding & Shadows
Control card radius, border width and colour, body padding, resting shadow, hover shadow, and hover lift.

Image Hover Effects
Zoom, Brighten, Grayscale, or None — plus accent colour, dark theme, UI corners, and responsive column counts.

Sticky Filter Toolbar
Keeps filters, category tabs, results count, and the Load more bar visible while scrolling through long result sets.

Skeleton Loading
Placeholder cards animate while Ajax requests are in progress.

Reset Control
Clear all filters with a text or icon reset button. Filter transitions fade the grid smoothly on update.

Featured Filtering
Show all articles, hide featured articles, or show only featured articles.

Featured Badge & Lead Mode
Optional featured badge on cards and lead story mode that prioritises the first featured article in portal layouts.

Featured-First Sorting
Visitors can sort with featured articles first while keeping the module generic for blogs, news, portfolios, and catalogues.

Independent Module IDs
Each instance sends its own module_id to the Ajax endpoint with separate categories, limits, filters, and styles.

Scoped DOM & URL State
JavaScript state and URL parameters (scf_{id}_*) are namespaced per instance so multiple modules can run on one page.

Instance-Specific Styling
CSS variables and custom CSS apply per wrapper for differently styled filters on the same page.

Custom CSS Field
Add extra CSS from the Advanced settings without editing module files.

{module} Placeholder
Use {module} as a placeholder for the current wrapper selector, for example {module} .scf-card { padding: 1.5rem; }.

Optional CSS Disable
Turn off the bundled module CSS when your template should handle the full design.

Live Status Updates
Loading messages, errors, and result counts use aria-live regions so screen readers announce Ajax changes.

Keyboard-Friendly Controls
Category tabs include tab roles and selected states. Buttons are used for reset, load more, and view toggle actions.

Semantic Headings
Choose H2, H3, H4, or H5 for card titles to match your page outline.

Namespaced Module Structure
Service provider, dispatcher, helper classes, template layout, language files, and versioned assets.

WebAssetManager Assets
CSS and JavaScript register through Joomla's WebAssetManager with automatic cache-busting.

Vanilla JavaScript
Lightweight browser APIs — no jQuery dependency.

One Module, Many Sites
Blogs, news rooms, portfolios, product showcases, catalogues, directories, documentation hubs, and case studies.

Exclude & Refine
Exclude categories or article IDs and optionally limit to the current site language.

Custom Fields Extend Cards
Display and filter structured metadata without making the extension niche-specific.