How the Page List Plus Addon Works

Setting Up the Block

Choose the Page Type(s) and Location

Sometimes you just want to show results from only one or two page types. Say for instance, you only wanted to show the articles on your site are, you would check the box next to the 'Articles' page type.

As in a core Page List, you can also choose where you want to find the pages: Everywhere, beneath this page, or beneath another page.

Filtering Pages

Next, you can filter out pages that meet some criteria.

• Keywords
  Enter text that must be in the content, meta description or meta keywords of the filtered page 
• Relate to content from Area
  Use the entire page, or certain Areas of the page to match your content, such as the 'Main' area.
• Display Page Aliases
  If the page has been aliased (it shows in multiple places on the site) then allow it to show in the results multiple times.
• Use Values from the Querystring as Filters
  This can be used both with and without the search functionality
• With Search Functionality
  Lets the search functionality work to display pages filtered on what is present in the querystring
• Without Search Functionality
  Lets a site administrator link to a page with pre-created filters to only show certain pages to the user
• Use MySQL Fulltext Search
  Uses MySQL's built-in searching functionality and allows for 'relevance' searches similar to the results from an internet search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.
• Use Boolean Mode in MySQL Fulltext Search
  Allows for using 'and', 'or', or 'not' searching. i.e. 'spotted and dog' to find everything that contains both 'spotted' and 'dog' as opposed to the literal 'spotted and dog' (which would probably not return any results)

Filtering Using Page Attributes

Both standard and custom page attributes can be used to filter pages. To use attributes as filters, check the box next to the attribute and then choose the type of matching that you'd like to use for that attribute.

If you are trying to do some sort of greater than/less than filtering on a single select box, check out this blog post. 

Using Page List+ for Searching

You can use Page List+ as a replacement for the core 'Search' block. To do so, go to the 'Search' tab and click the 'Use for Search' box.

The options on this tab allow for:

• Showing the Search Box
  Use this if you want to actually show the search box and filters at the top. If you want to split up the search, like the box at the top and the results in the body of the page. You would use this and uncheck the 'Show Results' box.
• Search Button Text
  The text that shows on the search button next to the text field
• Search Target URL
  The URL of the page that the search results will go to. If left empty, it will re-post to the current page. 
• Showing the Results
  Use this if you want to show the results, such as on a page that the user will be able to filter the results or an all-in-one search form
• Show all pages in results on page load
  If left unchecked, the first time the page is loaded, the results will be empty. You'd probably want to uncheck the box if you have a stand alone search page.

You can allow visitors to your site to filter the results based on various criteria. To do so, check the 'Show Search Filters' box.

• Submit form as soon as a filter is changed
  Resubmit the form each time a dropdown is changed, instead of having to click the 'Search' button.
• Search Filter 'All' text
  By default, the 'show all'/'do not filter' is blank. You can change that to say '*All*' for instance.
• Page attributes
  You can select which page attributes will be available for visitors to use as filters.

If you select page attributes, you must re-configure the 'Filter' tab:

• Check the same boxes that you selected on the 'Search' tab.
• From the dropdown, choose an option that gets it's value from the querystring, such as 'Matches any in the Querystring' to allow filtering from a value given in the search filter.

Sorting the Results

You can sort the Page List+ results on the 'Sort' tab.

• 'Sort Pages' dropdowns
  You can sort the pages by two criteria. For instance, by date and then by page name. Allowable sorting criteria are:
  
  • Sitemap order
  • Most recent / Least recent
  • Alphabetical / Reverse alphabetical
  • Keyword relevance / Reverse keyword relevance
  • Random order
  • By page attribute
  The 'first sort by' can also be set to 'selected by user'. This allows you to setup which criteria the user can use to sort by.
• Show User Sort
  This checkbox is shown if the 'First Sort by' is set to 'selected by user'. If checked, it will show the user a sorting dropdown above the results.
• Page Attributes
  Check the box next to each page attribute you would like the user to be able to sort the results by.

Display Settings

You can update the way that the Page List+ is displayed on the 'Display' tab.

• List Title
  Shows this as an H2 heading above the page list
• Display
  Show a specific number of items on the page
• 'No Results' text
  If there are no pages that match the criteria, let the user know
• Truncate descriptions
  Only show X number of characters from the page description
• Show 'See All' link
  Enter the text of the link and the URL that it should go to
• Display Pagination
  Show basic pagination if there are more results than what you entered for 'Display' above. This must be checked if you are using this Page List+ block with Infinite Scroller. 
• Provide RSS Feed
• Show Debugging
  Show the SQL query that is generated by the block. Useful if you aren't getting the results you think you should.

Templating

Page List+ works with most standard page list templates. To use your existing page list templates:

• Create a folder under the {root} of your website named 'blocks'. (It should already exist.)
• Create a folder under the folder named 'blocks'. Call it 'page_list_plus'.
• Create a folder under the 'page_list_plus' folder named' templates.
• Copy your existing page list templates to the new 'templates' folder.
• Update your Page List+ blocks with the new template.