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What you need to know:
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You do not need coding knowledge to install and set up Universal Filter because it’s just copy/paste.
We also have tutorials and documentations to instruct you on how to set up, customize and style your Squarespace filter. And if you run into any problem, our customer support is ready to help you.
Having said that, knowing some JavaScript (JS) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), is handy if you want to customize or style the filter yourself.
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After purchasing Universal Filter, you'll receive an email containing a .txt file and the links to the complete installation guide.
Simply paste the code to Page Header Code Injection (or a Code Block if you're on the Personal plan). Then follow the instructions in the installation guide.
The .txt file contains the code you need for installation. If you haven’t received it, please request to resend it to you.
Same goes for the links to the installation guide.
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We provide FREE Basic Support, this includes help installing and activating Universal Filter with the default configuration on your Squarespace website.
The default configuration depends on where you’re using the filter:
Category & Tag Dropdown Filters + Title/Date/Price Sorters + Search Field
(for blogs, products, events, summary blocks )Button Filters + Search Field
(for portfolio, galleries, list section, Index pages)
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The Universal Filter works on these block and pages:
Blogs - 7.0 and 7.1
Products/Store - 7.0 and 7.1
Events - 7.0 and 7.1
Summary Blocks - 7.0 and 7.1
Gallery Blocks - 7.0 and 7.1
Gallery Sections- 7.1 only
Portfolio - 7.1 only
Video Pages - 7.1 only
User Item List (a.k.a. Auto Layout) - 7.1 only
Gallery Collection - 7.0 only
Index Pages- 7.0 only
Galleries with Index - 7.0 only
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1. Display Limit
Universal Filter depends on the display limit of the page or block you use it on.
For example, if you use it on a summary block, it only displays 30 items because that’s the summary block’s display limit. But if you use it on blogs, it’ll display up to the thousands because blogs virtually have no limit.
If you don’t know the display limit of the page or content block you’re using, you can read about it here: Squarespace collection limits.
Want to load more summary block items?
Use Universal Filter together with the Lazy Summaries Plugin, to extend the Summary Block limit from 30 to unlimited.
2. Cache Time Delay
Universal Filter saves your filter data on our server to load it faster on consecutive page visits. And automatically updates the server data in windows of 10 minutes.
What this means for you is when you add/change/remove tags or categories to products, it may not immediately reflect on your filter because the 10-minute window hasn’t passed yet.
This is what we call a cache time delay.
An easy workaround to this limit is to simply open your page on an incognito window or clear your browser’s cache.
The cache time delay only takes a few to several minutes. If it takes longer than that, report it to us and we’ll get it sorted.
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If you're not a coder, we also offer Paid Support. Just send us a message and let us know how you'd like to use Universal Filter on your Squarespace website.
| Feature | Universal Filter | Native Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Category Filtering | ✓ | Limited |
| Tag Filtering | ✓ | Limited |
| Search Field | ✓ | Limited |
| Multiple Filters | ✓ | No |
| Product Filtering | ✓ | Partial |
| Portfolio Filtering | ✓ | No |
Why Choose Universal Filter Instead of Native Squarespace Filtering?
Universal Filter Examples
Hey! Wanna see real and working example of Squarespace sites using the Universal Filter? Check these out (notice some of the examples are customized with JS/CSS or may even use not just Universal Filter plugin):
More Examples of Universal Filter
Here’s a review video from Phil Pallen talking about great ways to use the Universal Filter plugin on your website.
Frequently Asked Questions
I. GENERAL QUESTIONS
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Yes, you can select multiple filters on one category or select multiple filters across different categories.
And Universal Filter lets you choose how you want to combine the results. Whether you want to show all items with the selected filters like a net or narrow down to the single item that has all the selected categories like a funnel.
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Yes.
(1) The Universal Filter plugin filters product by category, tag, and price. It also filters by product variants and stock availability.
(2) Sorts products by their:
title (A-Z / Z-A),
date added (New - Old / Old - New),
price (highest-lowest / lowest-highest),
number of stocks (high-low/low-high)
custom data
(3) And searches products by texts including titles, descriptions, IDs, SKUs, tags and categories.
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Yes, the Universal Filter works great for team pages so you can filter by member’s specialty, position, tenure, location, branch, etc. Whether you’re using a list section, auto layout, blog pages or summary blocks for your team page, Universal Filter can help you.
Not sure if filter will work on your page? Contact us and we’ll assess your page if this Squarespace plugin is applicable on your page.
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Yes, the Universal Filter works on Squarespace version 7.0 just as well as it does on 7.1.
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Yes, we do. We have a 30-day refund period.
If the Universal Filter does not fit your needs or we can’t help you, tell us and we’ll refund your purchase.
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It depends on where you use it.
Universal Filter waits for your entire collection to load before loading the filter options which means a bigger collection (like a collection of 500 blog or 1000 products) will load slower than a smaller collection (like a 60-item portfolio or a 30-item summary block).
How much time are we talking about?
Between a second and a couple of seconds.
If you’re using the filter on product pages you might experience a delay when adding new products, tags and categories. This is because we save your filter data on our server and the caching time is 10 minutes.
But that’s it. If it takes longer than that contact us and we’ll fix it for you.
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Anyone who needs to add a filtering option to their Squarespace website to help their customers search, sort and organize collections.
The Universal Filter works on these pages and block types:
Blogs
Products
Portfolio
Events
Summary Blocks
Video Pages
User Item List / Auto Layout
Gallery Sections
Gallery Blocks
Gallery Collections (in 7.0)
Index Pages (in 7.0)
Indexed Galleries (in 7.0)
II. INSTALLATION RELATED QUESTIONS
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Yes, non coders can use Universal Filter.
Installing the filter plugin is just copy/paste. And unless you need heavy customizations to your filter, changing settings is mostly copy/paste.
The challenge is where to paste and what to paste. That’s why we have the documentation page and tutorials for non coders to follow.
And if you need help, run into an issue or have questions, contact us. We respond.
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No, not necessarily.
Although we recommend to paste the Universal Filter code in the Page Header Code Injection (which only available on Business plans) you can still use the filter plugin on Basic plan by pasting the filter code on a markdown block instead - Add a markdown block on your page, paste the filter code and save.
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No, the Universal Filter license does not expire.
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Yes, you can use Universal Filter on Squarespace trial accounts, and unpublished websites so you can test the filter if it works for your project before applying it on a live site or publishing your website.
You can also use it on Basic Account by pasting the filter code on a Markdown block
(though we recommend pasting it on Page Header Code Injection because content blocks are more susceptible to Squarespace updates). -
Yes, you can use Universal Filter on unpublished Squarespace websites and trial accounts. So you can test the filter if it works for your project before applying it on a live site or publishing your website.
You do not need to wait for your site to go live before using the filter plugin.
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Yes, we do.
Basic support is FREE - this includes installing the filter and setting up with the default configurations (i. e. Categories, Tags, Dropdowns, Buttons, Search Field and Price/Title Sorting).
But if you need help for specific filter styling and applications, Paid Support costs $45/hour.
We also do custom coding at $65/hour for solutions not covered by the plugin.
How to get help? Contact us.
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First of all, if you need help installing the filter and setting up with the default configurations (i. e. Categories, Tags, Dropdowns, Buttons, Search Field and Price/Title Sorting) basic support is FREE.
That said, Paid Support costs $45/hour if you need help styling and customizing your filter setup. And we also do custom coding at $65/hour for solutions not covered by the plugin.
How to get help? Contact us
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First you have to purchase the plugin. After purchasing the plugin, you’ll receive an email with a .txt file.
Open the .txt file and follow the instructions to access the Installation Guide.
Follow the instructions you see on the top of the page for the basic setup.
Then change the settings according to your needs, you’ll find the codes in the sections below the installation instructions.
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The links to the documentation page and tutorials are found in one of the emails you receive when you purchase Universal Filter. To be specific, please refer to the first section of the documentation page for the instructions on how to install the filter plugin.
If you can’t find the link or email, contact us and we’ll resend it to you.
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Yes, Universal Filter will work with Weglot if you turn on the option to ‘translate dynamically loaded content’ in the Weglot dashboard.
That’s also the condition for other language translating plugin. If they can translate dynamic loaded content, the Universal Filter will work with them.
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You need to purchase a Universal Filter license for each website. But you can use it multiple times on multiple pages on 1 site.
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Yes, as long as you’re using Universal Filter on a supported block or page.
You can add multiple filters on:
a single page (e.g. multiple summary blocks)
multiple pages (e.g. summary blocks on multiple pages)
different pages (e.g. blogs, store, portfolio, events, galleries, etc.)
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Yes, as long as you’re using Universal Filter on a supported block or page.
You can use it on:
similar pages (e.g. summary blocks on multiple pages) or,
different pages (e.g. blogs, store, portfolio, events, galleries, etc.).
And you can use the filter on those pages simultaneously or separately.
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Yes, you need the Lazy Summaries plugin to extend results of Summary Block.
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You only need to pay one-time to get a Universal Filter license.
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Yes, Universal Filter works on Gallery Block.
For further info, please refer to the “Gallery Block” section under the Filter Config Main Options of the Installation Guide. Or simply search “Gallery Block” in the page.
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Yes, we can implement a filterable Video Gallery with a Gallery Block.
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Here’s a list of the different block and page types you use Universal Filter on:
Summary Bock
Gallery Block (7.0 and 7.1)
Events Collection
Products (7.0 and 7.1)
Blog (7.0 and 7.1)
Gallery Page 7.0
Gallery Section 7.1
Portfolio 7.1
User Items List
Index with Galleries 7.0
Index with Pages 7.0
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You can use the Gallery Block to create a Video Gallery with Filter.
III. FEATURE RELATED QUESTIONS
IV. FILTER and SORTING RELATED QUESTIONS
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Yes, you can use Universal Filter to display videos on the same page using the Gallery block.
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Yes, the Universal Filter can help you filter your products/items by brand using Categories and Tags. This plugin can also let your users search your products/items by brand.
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Yes, you can use the Universal Filter to filter by color.
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Yes, you can filter multiple categories with Universal Filter. See example: https://setcreative.com/
You can also create Dropdowns to further narrow filter categories.
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Yes, you can use Universal Filter to filter Video Galleries.
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Yes, by using tags and categories. However, if you using Summary Block and would like to pull results from different pages or multiple collections, then you'll need the Sync Collections JSON plugin.
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Yes, you can apply Filter on multiple Galleries or search and pull data from multiple Galleries on your Squarespace website.
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Yes, you can search by area with Universal Filter and Advanced Map Block plugins.
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Yes, Universal Filter can display more than 20 posts if you’re using the Blog List page in Squarespace 7.1. This is the only exception, otherwise you can’t.
Alternatively, you can use the Lazy Summary plugin to raise the limit of the Summary Block from 30 to unlimited. Please note however, that displaying more items in the outset will cause your page to slow down upon loading.
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Yes, Universal Filter works with a combination of Categories and Tags. You can use the Universal Filter to implement multiple filters, nested filters or dropdowns to narrow down your customers selection or create a hierarchy or Categories and Tags.
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No limits, but obviously operating thousands of items or tags is not a good idea because things run in the browser and the more filters or tags you add the slower your page becomes.
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Because Universal Filter does not affect the number of items a block type can return, you are limited to the collection limit of the block you’re using. You can find out about the page limit of the block or collection you’re using here: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543087-Page-limits
However, if you’re using Summary Block, you can raise the man number of items your filter can display by adding the Lazy Summary plugin on your Squarespace website. Learn more about the Lazy Summary plugin here: https://www.squarewebsites.org/squarespace-plugins/p/lazy-summaries