CMS COLLECTION + Is Coming Soon
More control over your CMS collection’s filters, output and layout
CMS COLLECTION + is a standalone, server-side collection component for RapidWeaver Elements. It reads Markdown posts from a CMS folder and displays them through the Before, Collection Item and After zones. You’re free to design each post your way by adding your own cards and other elements to the Collection Item zone.
The component combines familiar CMS features with additional options for filtering, responsive grids, RSS feeds and sitemaps.
CMS folders and post pages
Choose a CMS folder with the Folder Picker, or enter a project-relative path in Folder Path (recommended). If you enter a path, it takes priority over the folder selection. This can be useful when you reuse a collection across projects or when the folder selection doesn’t clearly resolve to the CMS path you need.
You can assign page templates for:
- Item Template for individual posts
- Tag Page Template for tag listings
- Author Page Template for author listings
The component also supports Pretty URLs. You can choose whether post URLs end with a trailing / to match your website’s URL rules.
Sort and filter posts
Sort posts by filename, date, publication date or title, in ascending or descending order. You can also filter by:
- Status: all, published or draft
- Date: past, future, all dates or a custom date range
- Tags and categories: all, from the URL or a custom comma-separated list
- Authors: all, from the URL or a custom selection
- Featured status: all, only featured or not featured
- Images: all posts or only posts with a non-empty
srcvalue in the front matter - Excluded tags: hide posts that match specific tags
For the image filter, the surrounding front matter structure doesn’t matter. The filter checks whether the image data contains a non-empty src value.
Responsive grid patterns
One of CMS COLLECTION +’s key features is Grid Patterns. Instead of using the same number of columns at every screen size, you can define a repeating pattern, for example:
2,3,3,2
This displays collection items in groups of two, three, three and two columns. You can define a separate pattern for Mobile, SM, MD, LG and XL. Breakpoint widths come from the Screen Responsive Breakpoints configured in your Elements theme.
Set horizontal and vertical gaps independently. In Edit Mode, the component displays matching Collection Item placeholders for the selected patterns and breakpoints, so you can see how the layout will be distributed before publishing.
If you want the same number of columns in every row, choose Fixed Columns instead.
Pagination
The component calculates the collection pages and provides settings for Items per Page and Offset. Add the designated Core Pagination element to display the page navigation. This keeps the navigation separate and prevents it from being output twice.
RSS, sitemap and diagnostics
CMS COLLECTION + can generate an RSS feed and a sitemap. Set a destination folder and filename for each. You can also choose how many posts to include in the RSS feed; set the value to 0 to include all matching posts.
Add links to the feed and sitemap in the Before or After zone using {{collection.rssURL}} and {{collection.sitemapURL}}. The Trailing Slash setting controls the URL format of sitemap entries so it can match your site’s Pretty URL rules.
The diagnostic view lets you check the generation status. It shows the configured destination, whether the file exists and is non-empty, its size and its last modified time. It also provides links to trigger a feed or sitemap rebuild.
More control over HTML and CSS
Under Advanced, set CSS classes and an ID for the outer wrapper. You can also choose an HTML tag or enter a custom one. A separate list lets you add custom HTML attributes.
This makes it easier to adapt the outer container to your markup, design and project requirements.
How does it differ from the Core Collection?
| Area | CMS COLLECTION + | Native Core Collection |
|---|---|---|
| Responsive grids | Repeating Grid Patterns with separate settings for Mobile, SM, MD, LG and XL | The Core Collection provides its own native layout and grid settings |
| Edit Mode preview | Placeholders show item groups and columns for each breakpoint | Native Core Collection preview and editing |
| Folder selection | Folder Picker plus an optional, preferred Folder Path | Native CMS folder binding |
| Filters | Additional options such as date ranges, tag exclusions and checking for non-empty image src values |
Core filters depend on the features available in your Elements version |
| Markup | Custom CSS classes, ID, HTML tag and wrapper attributes | The native component’s Core settings |
| Feeds and sitemap | Settings, destination paths and diagnostics in the component | Native Core integration and its built-in Elements workflow |
The main difference is the extra control over presentation. Grid Patterns can repeat different group sizes at each breakpoint. The component also adds an explicit Folder Path, a tag exclusion list, an image filter based on src values and more control over the outer HTML wrapper.
CMS COLLECTION + is a standalone alternative for projects that need these additional layout and filtering options. The native Core Collection remains Elements’ built-in standard solution. CMS COLLECTION + is a separate Dev Pack component and requires PHP for server-side output. Pretty URLs also require matching server rules. RSS and sitemap generation should be checked on your hosting environment using the diagnostic view.
In short: CMS COLLECTION + is for Elements users who want more control over how CMS posts are grouped, filtered and wrapped in HTML.