Taxonomy Grid

Turning categories into gallery items

The Taxonomies source builds the gallery out of terms instead of posts. Each category, tag or custom term becomes one item, with the term name as the title, the term description as the description, and a link to that term’s archive. The grid above uses ordinary post categories, and the count under each name comes from a skin element only this source offers.

Pick it when the page is a way into the archive rather than the archive itself, like a collections page for a photographer or a department page for a shop. The alternative is a post grid with a category filter, which puts every post on the page and lets the filter row narrow things down. That works while the archive is small. Past that, one cover image pointing at the archive beats a page full of thumbnails.

Sources, term images and ordering

Any public taxonomy can feed the block: post categories, Portfolio Categories, product categories, anything a plugin registered. Menus, link categories and post formats are excluded. The Taxonomies source panel decides how much of the taxonomy arrives and in what order.

• Source takes a single taxonomy and prints all its terms. Taxonomies Set mixes several, and Manual Selection narrows to the terms listed in Specific Terms, where picking nothing renders an empty gallery on purpose.
• Hide Empty Terms is on by default, so terms with no published posts never reach the grid.
• Parent Term accepts All Terms, Top Level Only, or one parent. It shows for hierarchical taxonomies and is hidden under Manual Selection.
• Order by accepts Name (the default), Post Count, Manual Selection, Term ID, Slug, Description, Parent, Term Order and None, with Order Direction ASC or DESC. Term Order needs a term-ordering plugin.
• Each item takes the term’s Thumbnail, then the newest published post’s featured image, then the Placeholder Image from Settings, General.
• Display Posts Count prints “8 Posts” on the item, using the post type’s own label.
• Items Per Page defaults to 6, and pagination behaves as it does for a post grid.

Setting up the taxonomy source in three steps

1. Insert the Visual Portfolio block and choose Taxonomies in the setup wizard. Set Source to a single taxonomy, Categories for example, and the block fills with every term that has published posts behind it.
2. Open Posts, Categories and upload a Thumbnail on the terms that need one. Pro puts that field on the Add and Edit screens of every public taxonomy, and saving it needs the manage categories capability.
3. Open the Skin panel, switch on Display Posts Count under Elements, then set Click Action to URL so an item opens its term archive, or to Popup so it opens the term image with the term title and description.

Only the source needs a license

The layout, the Emerge skin, the lightbox and the pagination in the demo above all ship in the free plugin, and the same grid built from posts would need no license at all. Pro is not an add-on. It contains the free plugin, and a free copy at version 3.8.1 or newer can stay active next to it. The free versus Pro comparison lists the split feature by feature, and the pricing page carries the tiers.

• The Taxonomies entry in the Content Source panel is Pro, together with the Thumbnail field it adds to every public taxonomy.
• Grid, Masonry, Tiles, Justified and Carousel layouts are free, and so are the Classic, Fade, Fly and Emerge skins.
• The lightbox, AJAX pagination and infinite scroll cost nothing.
• Advanced click action is Pro, and it is the only way to give Term with Image and Term with No-Image separate rules.

Questions about category and tag grids

Why does the filter row not appear?

The Filter element cannot list terms for this source, so leave it out of the layout. When no term qualifies the filter is not printed at all, which is also why a filter shows only All on other sources. A page that needs a filter row has to be built from Posts.

Do I need the Portfolio post type for this?

No. A grid of post categories or product categories never touches Projects. You can switch Register Portfolio Post Type off under Settings, General. The menu shrinks to Saved Layouts and Settings, and galleries built from other post types keep working.

Are these grids SEO friendly?

Each item is a plain HTML link to a term archive that already exists on the site, and the image carries alt text. Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO pick up gallery images for their XML sitemaps. Filtered, sorted and paged views on ordinary pages are marked noindex, follow.