mFilterNav

Snippet for building SEO navigation from filter values.

Description

mFilterNav generates navigation menus from filter values — e.g. list of colors, brands, or categories with links to filtered pages. Parameters follow pdoMenu style for convenience.

Use cases:

• SEO internal linking in footer or sidebar
• Brand / vendor navigation
• Tag clouds / attribute links
• Link-based filters instead of checkboxes

Parameters

Main

Parameter	Default	Description
parents	0 (current)	Parent resource ID
filterKeys	—	Filter keys to display (comma-separated)

Data source (for counts)

Parameter	Default	Description
element	—	Snippet for getting IDs (msProducts, pdoResources)
depth	10	Search depth for element

Templates (pdoMenu style)

Parameter	Default	Description
tpl	built-in	Link item template
tplOuter	@INLINE <ul>{$output}</ul>	Outer wrapper
tplGroup	—	Group wrapper (for grouping by filterKey)
tplHere	—	Active item template

CSS classes (pdoMenu style)

Parameter	Default	Description
firstClass	first	First item class
lastClass	last	Last item class
hereClass	active	Active item class
rowClass	—	Class for all items
outerClass	—	Outer wrapper class

Behavior

Parameter	Default	Description
showCount	false	Show product count
hideEmpty	true	Hide items with count=0
sortBy	label	Sort: label, count, sort_order
sortDir	ASC	Direction: ASC, DESC
limit	0	Item limit (0 = no limit)

Caching

Parameter	Default	Description
cache	false	Enable caching
cacheTime	3600	Cache TTL (seconds)

Placeholders in templates

tpl / tplHere

Placeholder	Description
{$url}	Filtered page URL
{$label}	Value label
{$value}	Raw value
{$slug}	Value slug
{$filterKey}	Filter key
{$count}	Product count
{$hasCount}	true if count is available
{$showCount}	Value of showCount parameter
{$idx}	Index (from 1)
{$isActive}	true if filter is active
{$isFirst}	true if first item
{$isLast}	true if last item
{$classNames}	Combined CSS classes

tplOuter

Placeholder	Description
{$output}	HTML of all items
{$outerClass}	Wrapper class

tplGroup

Placeholder	Description
{$output}	HTML of group items
{$filterKey}	Filter key
{$count}	Item count in group

Examples

Brand navigation

<nav class="brands-nav">
    <h3>Brands</h3>
    {'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
        'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
        'filterKeys' => 'vendor_id',
        'sortBy' => 'label'
    ]}
</nav>

Color navigation with count

{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'color',
    'element' => 'msProducts',
    'showCount' => true,
    'hideEmpty' => true,
    'tpl' => '@INLINE <li class="{$classNames}">
        <a href="{$url}">{$label} ({$count})</a>
    </li>'
]}

Multiple filters with grouping

{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'brand,color,size',
    'tplGroup' => '@INLINE <div class="filter-group">
        <h4>{$filterKey}</h4>
        <ul>{$output}</ul>
    </div>',
    'tplOuter' => '@INLINE <div class="filter-nav">{$output}</div>'
]}

Top 10 popular values

{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'brand',
    'element' => 'msProducts',
    'showCount' => true,
    'sortBy' => 'count',
    'sortDir' => 'DESC',
    'limit' => 10
]}

Horizontal menu

{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'category',
    'outerClass' => 'nav nav-pills',
    'rowClass' => 'nav-item',
    'hereClass' => 'active',
    'tpl' => '@INLINE <li class="{$classNames}">
        <a class="nav-link{if $isActive} active{/if}" href="{$url}">{$label}</a>
    </li>'
]}

Custom active item template

{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'color',
    'hereClass' => 'is-selected',
    'tplHere' => '@INLINE <li class="{$classNames}">
        <span class="current">{$label}</span>
    </li>'
]}

Alphabetical index

{* Sort by name *}
{'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
    'parents' => $_modx->resource.id,
    'filterKeys' => 'brand',
    'sortBy' => 'label',
    'sortDir' => 'ASC',
    'outerClass' => 'brand-index'
]}

SEO use

Footer internal links

<footer>
    <div class="footer-links">
        <div class="footer-col">
            <h4>Popular brands</h4>
            {'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
                'parents' => 5,
                'filterKeys' => 'vendor_id',
                'limit' => 10,
                'sortBy' => 'count',
                'sortDir' => 'DESC',
                'element' => 'msProducts'
            ]}
        </div>
        <div class="footer-col">
            <h4>By color</h4>
            {'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
                'parents' => 5,
                'filterKeys' => 'color',
                'element' => 'msProducts',
                'hideEmpty' => true
            ]}
        </div>
    </div>
</footer>

Sidebar navigation

<aside class="catalog-sidebar">
    {* Main filter form *}
    {'!mFilterForm' | snippet}

    {* Extra link-based navigation *}
    <div class="sidebar-links">
        <h4>Quick select</h4>
        {'!mFilterNav' | snippet: [
            'filterKeys' => 'brand,color',
            'limit' => 5,
            'showCount' => true,
            'element' => 'msProducts'
        ]}
    </div>
</aside>

mFilterForm vs mFilterNav

mFilterForm	mFilterNav
Interactive form	Static links
Checkboxes, sliders	Links only
AJAX update	URL navigation
Combine filters	One filter per link
For users	For SEO / navigation

Recommendations

• Use hideEmpty to hide empty values
• element is only needed when using showCount or hideEmpty
• For SEO navigation, caching (cache => true) is recommended
• Use limit for long lists