Blog posts widget

Overview

You use the Blog post widget to display blog posts on your website pages. You select what content to display and then specify how blog posts are listed and displayed individually.

The Blog posts widget can be used along with Blogs widget. You can configure the widgets to work together and once you click on blog title to see all blot posts for the currently selected blogs (listed in Blog posts widget). To achieve this, you must configure Blogs widget Open single item in... and select page with a Blog post widget. Then configure the Blog post widget to show posts From currently opened blog.

PREREQUISITES: You created at least one blog post item. For more information, see Create content.

Select blog posts to display

In the Content tab page, choose which blog posts you want to display. Choose between the following options:

  • From all blogs
    All blog posts that are uploaded and published will be displayed in the list.

  • From selected blogs only...
    A custom selection of blogs is displayed. To select one or more blogs from which you want to display blog posts, click the Select button.

  • From currently opened blog
    All published blog posts from the currently opened blog will be displayed in the list.

Under Narrow the selection you can further specify which blog posts to display by choosing one of the following:

  • All published blog posts
    This is selected by default and displays all blog posts selected in the previous step.

  • Selection of blog posts...
    You can narrow the displayed blog posts, using categories, tags, and dates. Select one or more of the following:

    • Categories...
      Select categories from which to display blog posts.

    • Tags...
      Select the tags by which to narrow down blog posts that are displayed.

    • Date...
      Select one of the predefined time intervals or choose Custom range… to select a more specific time interval, in which the displayed blog posts must be created.

    NOTE: You can select more than one filter and narrow down results using combinations of filters, for example by both categories and dates.

List settings

List settings define how blog posts are listed by the Blog post widget. Choose one of the following options:

  • Use paging
    Sitefinity CMS divides the blog posts into pages. In the input field, specify how many blog posts per page to display.

  • Use limit
    Sitefinity CMS displays only a limited number of blog posts. In the input field, specify how many blog posts to display.

  • No limit and paging
    Sitefinity CMS displays all blog posts that meet the requirements and filters you set in the Content tab.

  • Sort blog posts
    By default, last published blog posts are listed on top. You can select a different sorting criterion:

    • Last published
    • Last modified
    • By Title (A-Z)
    • By Title (Z-A)
    • As set manually
    • As set in Advanced mode
      To sort the list of blog posts by property that is not defined in the sort dropdown menu, you must add a new sorting expression in the designer’s Advanced mode. For example, to sort blog posts using the Content property of blog post, navigate to Advanced » Model and, for SortExpression, add Content ASC. As a result, in the sort dropdown menu, the As set in Advanced mode option is selected by default.
  • List template
    Select the template you want to use to list blog posts on the webpage.

  • CSS classes
    Expand More options section to specify CSS file names and apply additional CSS classes to the Blog post widget. This CSS class will be applied while widget is in list mode.

Single item settings

Single item settings define how individual blog posts are displayed. Choose one of the following options:

  • Open single item in...
    Select one of the following options:

    • Auto-generated page
      When you click a blog post, it is displayed in an automatically generated page with the same layout as the list page.

    • Selected existing page...
      Select a page from the list of existing pages that has the desired layout. When you click on the blog post, it is displayed in this specific page.

    NOTE: The page on which you want the blog post displayed must have a Blog post widget added.

  • Detail template
    Select the template you want to use to display the blog post's details on the webpage.

  • CSS classes
    Expand More options section to specify CSS file names and apply additional CSS classes to the Blog post widget.

Advanced settings

In Advanced settings, you specify individual properties of the widget:

  • DetailsPageId
    Gets the ID of the page you selected in the Selected existing page... option in the Single item settings tab page.

  • DetailTemplateName
    Gets the template you selected in the Detail template dropdown menu in the Single item settings tab page.

  • ListTemplateName
    Gets the template you chose in the List template dropdown menu in the List settings tab page.

  • OpenInSamePage
    Defines whether when you click on a blog post's title to open the detail view in the same page. The default value is True.

Model settings

Model settings display all properties directly bound to the Blog post widget model. Access these properties by clicking the Model button in Advanced settings.

  • ContentViewDisplayMode
    This property enables you to configure whether single content items are displayed in detail or in list mode by entering Detail or Master, respectively. The default mode is Automatic.

  • DetailCssClass
    Gets and sets an additional CSS class to the detail view of a blog post.

  • DisplayMode
    Gets the value you selected in the Simple List settings tab page:

    • Paging
      This is the default option.
    • Limit
    • All
  • FilterExpression
    Filters blog posts based on an additional filter expression.

  • ItemsPerPage
    Defines the number of blog posts per page when paging is enabled. The default value is 20.

  • ListCssClass
    Gets and sets an additional CSS class to the list view.

  • ParentFilterMode
    Gets the option that you chose for libraries in the Content tab page. The possible values you can chose from are:

    • All
      This is the default option.
    • Selected
    • CurrentlyOpen
  • ProviderName
    If you have more than one providers added, you can use a blogs provider different than the default one. To do this, specify the name of this provider.

    NOTE: If you leave this property value empty, the default blogs provider is used.

  • SelectionMode
    Gets the option that you chose for blog posts under Narrow selection by... in the Content tab page. The possible values you can chose from are:

    • AllItems
      This is the default option.
    • FilteredItems
  • SerializedAdditionalFilters
    In case blog posts are filtered based on a date, tags, or categories, the IDs of the selected filter criterions are serialized and populated in that field.

  • SerializedSelectedItemsIds
    In case blog posts are specifically selected, the IDs of the selected blog posts are serialized and populated in that field. For example: ["3f47d0b8-2d22-6e58-888c-ff0000bfc4e0"]

  • SerializedSelectedParentsIds
    In case blogs are specifically selected, the IDs of the selected blogs are serialized and populated in that field. For example: ["3f47d0b8-2d22-6e58-888c-ff0000bfc4e0"]

  • SortExpression
    Adds additional sorting expression for the blog posts. The default value is PublicationDate DESC.

  • UrlKeyPrefix
    Gets or sets the URL key prefix. Used when building or evaluating URLs for paging and filtering.

Additional resources

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