A long grid of posts asks the reader to do the sorting. A row of category buttons above it lets them jump straight to what they came for.
The Category Wise Filter setting of the Dynamic Smart Showcase widget from The Plus Addons for Elementor adds that row and filters the cards in place, without reloading the page.
To check the complete feature overview documentation of The Plus Addons for Elementor Dynamic Smart Showcase widget, click here.
Requirement – This widget is a part of The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro, make sure it’s installed & activated to enjoy all its powers.
Before You Start
- Edition: Pro — Dynamic Smart Showcase is only in The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro. With the Pro plugin switched off the widget is not in the editor at all, and a page that already uses it shows nothing where the widget was.
- Widget to enable: Dynamic Smart Showcase, switched on under The Plus Addons > Widgets.
- Style must be Magazine Filter: the Category Wise Filter section only exists when Style is set to Magazine Filter.
- You need published content: the widget queries your site. Posts, pages or a custom post type with published entries must already exist, or the widget prints Posts not found.
- Categories must be assigned: a category with no posts in it produces an empty result when its button is clicked.
How to Add the Filter
- Drag the Dynamic Smart Showcase widget onto your page.
- In Layout, set Style to Magazine Filter and pick a News Layout.
- Set Post Type to Posts.
- Open Content Source and raise Maximum Posts Display from 1.
- Open the Category Wise Filter section, which sits just above Extra Options, and switch Category Wise Filter on. With Magazine Filter selected the two Post Ticker sections are hidden, so it follows Content Source directly.
The Result
A button row appears above the grid. Clicking one keeps only that category’s cards:
Filter Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| All Filter Category Text | The label on the button that shows everything. | All |
| Only Show Next Previous | Hides the whole button row and leaves just the arrow pair. | off |
| Category Filter Style | Four presets for the buttons. Styles 2 and 3 print a post count beside each label; style 4 collapses the row behind a Filters toggle. | style-1 |
| Filter Hover Style | Four hover treatments for those buttons. | style-1 |
| Filter Alignment | Left, Center or Right. | Center |
| Heading (in Layout) | The text to the left of the button row. | The Plus |
Filtering a Custom Post Type
The same switch works for a custom post type, using its own taxonomy instead of categories.
- Set Post Type to your custom post type.
- In Content Source, pick the taxonomy in the Taxonomies dropdown. It lists registered taxonomy names, so “Book Authors” appears as
book_author. - Switch Category Wise Filter on as before.
The buttons now carry the term names from that taxonomy:
How It Behaves
- Filtering happens in the browser. The cards already on the page are shown or hidden — nothing is re-fetched and the page does not reload.
- The clicked button is marked active and the All button brings every card back.
- With Category Filter Style set to style 2 or 3, the number beside each button counts the posts of that term in this listing.
- Turning Only Show Next Previous on removes the buttons completely; the arrows page through the grid instead.
- The arrow pair is always rendered, whether or not the buttons are shown.
Limitations
- Category Wise Filter only exists for the Magazine Filter style. The section is hidden for Magazine Slider and Post Ticker, and switching it on elsewhere has no effect.
- The button row lists every term that has content anywhere on the site, not only the terms present in this listing. A term used elsewhere still gets a button, shows a count of 0 with styles 2 and 3, and filters to an empty grid.
- Only posts already loaded can be filtered. Posts beyond Maximum Posts Display are not fetched when you click a button.
- The arrows use Font Awesome icons. On a page with nothing else loading Font Awesome they can come out blank.
Troubleshooting
There is no Category Wise Filter section
Set Style to Magazine Filter in the Layout section. The filter section is hidden for the other two styles. It is a section of its own, not part of Extra Options.
A button shows nothing when clicked
That category has no post inside this listing. Raise Maximum Posts Display, or clear the Select Category restriction in Content Source.
The buttons disappeared
Only Show Next Previous is on. Switch it off to get the button row back.
My custom taxonomy terms are not on the buttons
Pick the taxonomy in Content Source > Taxonomies first. Without it the widget falls back to the default taxonomy for that post type.
