Improving the Grid
Continuing the development’s live blogging, today let’s talk about the Grid. Introduced months ago, the Movie Grid was an old, recuring demand from a lot of users and I still got a lot of request to add features and functionalities to it; version 2.1.4 will therefore include an update Grid with new options and possibilities.
Controlling content
First point, the Grid content. The new version will introduce the possibility, just like the [movies] Shortcode, to create grids for collections, actors, genres, or specific metadata − though that last one was already kind of present in previous versions. The way it’s taking, the Grid could probably replace completely the [movies] Shortcode which is pretty obsolete now, but we’ll see about that later, no rush.
Controlling the order
That’s actually the main point, or at least the biggest request: the Grid will be sortable at will. Right now only release date, local release and rating are supported in addition to the default title sorting and I’ll soon add the post date, but I’m open to suggestions. This will be experimental in version 2.1.4 and deactivated by default.
Limitations
A recurring issue with the Grid is the URLs. Having multiple Grids in a single page will mess up with permalinks and pagination, and the Grid does not work in Post. My guess is that it will have to evolve in a future release to make use of JavaScript and the Backbone library just like the Dashboard; using Backbone to manipulate the grid will solve any URLs issue and allow to include Grids pretty much everywhere! But that’s a long shot as it will require quite a bit of work, so don’t expect this until version 2.3 or 2.4.
And version 2.2?
Still working on it too, I’m now focusing on the Quick Edit part and thinking thoroughly about the importer. Quick Edit will allow you to edit movies metadata and details from the ‘All movies’ list page in an advanced way, using a Modal window very similar to the media edit modal you can see in the Media Library since WordPress 4.0, as the following concept shows.
Back to work!
I like where you are going with the Grid and the All Movies pages! A question: not sure if already possible, but what would be great would be to be able to allow visitors to my site to not just decide on the order of the Grid, but also to easily select subsets – e.g. ‘only show me movies with a rating of 4 stars or more’ – will that also be possible?
It’s kind of possible already, but there’s a lot of change planned on that part. The way the grid is built isn’t that good, so version 2.1.4 will operate a small step back and deactivate any sorting from fontend, time enough to build version 2.1.5 which will include a really advanced grid with sorting options, infinite scroll, etc!
Sounds good! How could I make it work in the interim then? I know I can make a list/predefined search listing eg ‘all movies with 5 stars’, but I don’t know how to predefine a search for e.g. ‘3.5 stars or better’. Help appreciated! 🙂