Shortcode Display Help

Thanks for the positive feedback and for your questions. I regret that a series of video tutorials is beyond my current time and talents, but I will give you as much help as I can here in the Support Forum.

Combining dropdown controls and search boxes can be a bit tricky but it has been done successfully by several MLA users, as outlined in these earlier support topics:

Is it possible to combine att tags dropdown + checkboxes?

Dropdown filter with two different taxonomies

Shortcode

Limiting search results to attachment tags/”Justifying” gallery grids

You will see that each application is a bit different. You can ignore all the references to uploading a Development Version; the current MLA release contains all of the fixes inspired by the earlier topics. You will want to install the “MLA UI Elements Example” plugin. Navigate to the Settings/Media library Assistant Documentation tab and click the “Example Plugins” button. Type “user” in the text box and click “Search Plugins” to filter the table.

You are looking for “MLA UI Elements Example” plugin. Find that plugin and hover over the title in the left-most column. Click the “Update” rollover action, then go to the WordPress Plugins/Installed Plugins submenu and verify that the new version is in place. Be sure to activate the example plugin as you would any other WordPress plugin.

You wrote “I want a page for Documents with a dropdown menu of the hierarchical categories as well as a search for those documents, I want the search query to look at tags, title, description, and categories. Same thing for Photos. In a masonry view, if possible.” Here is a straightforward set of shortcodes you can adapt to your application. It uses the example plugin and the Photonic Gallery plugin (style=random) for a masonry display and lightbox:

<form id="mla-text-form" action="." method="post" class="row">
<strong>Att. Categories</strong>
[mla_term_list taxonomy=attachment_category post_mime_type=image number=5 mla_output=dropdown mla_option_value="{+slug+}" use_filters=true show_count=true pad_counts=false ]

<strong>Tags Search</strong>
[muie_terms_search mla_terms_taxonomies=attachment_tag mla_term_delimiter=' ' mla_phrase_connector='OR']

<strong>Keyword Search</strong>
[muie_keyword_search mla_search_connector='OR']

Items per page: [muie_per_page numberposts=3]

<input id="text-form-submit" name="text_form_submit" type="submit" value="Filter" />
</form>

<h3>Gallery</h3>
[mla_gallery orderby=date posts_per_page=20 add_filters_to=any mla_output="paginate_links,prev_next"]

[mla_gallery style=random orderby=date posts_per_page=20 add_filters_to=any mla_nolink_text="Enter a term above to see a gallery of images that match."]

You can find more information about Photonic in the “Support for the “Photonic Gallery” Plugin” section of the Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab. You can use other gallery plugins, such as the excellent Justified Image Grid, with MLA’s “Support for Other Gallery-generating Shortcodes”.

I hope that gets you started on a solution for your application. I will leave this topic unresolved for now in case you have problems or further questions regarding the above suggestions. Thanks for your interest in MLA.

Awesome! Thank you so much! One more question, is it possible to show all my images when first landing on the page and then use the categories dropdown or search to narrow my search?

Thanks for confirming that the suggestions were helpful. To show all of the images on the initial page load you can add post_parent=all to both of your [mla_gallery] shortcodes, i.e.:

<h3>Gallery</h3>
[mla_gallery post_parent=all orderby=date posts_per_page=20 add_filters_to=any mla_output="paginate_links,prev_next"]

[mla_gallery post_parent=all style=random orderby=date posts_per_page=20 add_filters_to=any mla_nolink_text="Enter a term above to see a gallery of images that match."]

I hope that gives you the results you need. I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions about the above suggestions.