Overview

FacetWP Dropdown facetThe dropdown facet type lets users select a single value.

Available options

Name Description
Data source Where the values live (taxonomy, custom field, post attribute). When choosing a hierarchical taxonomy, read this warning.
Default label Set the label for the first dropdown option (default: “Any”). Note: this label is translatable with the facetwp_i18n hook.
Parent term If the facet’s Data Source is a hierarchical taxonomy and you want to display only child terms of a specific parent, enter the parent’s term ID. Use only one term ID. (Note: don’t use this in a multilingual setup, because the parent term IDs will be different for each language).
Value modifiers Enter a list of values (one per line, without commas) to include or exclude from the facet’s choices. The values need to match the label (not the slug) of the value exactly, including spaces and capitalization. See the explanation below. If they don’t work, see this page for more info.
Hierarchical Whether to display the facet choices visually as a hierarchy, by ordering the child terms below their parent term and by indenting the child terms. This setting only appears if Data Source is set to a taxonomy, and it will only have an effect if the chosen taxonomy is actually a hierarchical taxonomy. Note: if child options don’t show up, make sure the “Count” setting is high enough.
Sort by Sort facet choices by:

  • Highest count – sorts by the total number of results with that value.
  • Display value – sorts alphabetically according to the label you see on the facet choices.
  • Raw value – sorts by the value that tracks the facet choices. For example in a dropdown, this is the option value rather than the option label. You can see the raw values in the url after making facet selections.
  • Term order – sorts by taxonomy term order. This option uses term_order which is only available when using a plugin that sets an explicit order for taxonomy terms. FacetWP supports:

    For term_order to work with these plugins, make sure to use an actual taxonomy as the facet’s data source, not an ACF field set to a taxonomy.

For custom ways of sorting, for example numerically, you can use the facetwp_facet_orderby hook.
Count The maximum number of choices to display. Be aware that if your Data source is a hierarchical taxonomy, the count includes the child terms/categories. If the count is too low, (some) child options will not show up.

Use -1 for no limit. However, note that FacetWP limits the maximum count at 1000 for usability and performance reasons. If you need that many choices, consider using a Search facet or Autocomplete facet instead.

What are value modifiers?

Value modifiers let you include or exclude certain choices from displaying. This setting requires a re-index to take effect.

Below are some examples:

Checkboxes facet with value modifiers

Indexing of term hierarchies

Checkboxes facet Hierarchical setting enabled

Dropdown hierarchical facet with three levels
Posts with only the Paris term selected in the back-end will be displayed in the front-end results if you select “Europe” or “France” in the facet.

With the “Hierarchical” setting enabled, FacetWP automatically indexes both explicit and implicit term hierarchies.

If your taxonomy includes Europe > France and a post has only the France term selected, then Europe will get indexed too for that post.

On the front-end this means that if you have a post that has only the Paris term selected, but not its parent terms (France or Europe), the post will still be displayed in the results if you filter by “Europe”, or “France” in the facet.

Hide counts

To hide counts from all facets of a type that use a dropdown UI (all Dropdown facets, fSelect facets, Hierarchy Select facets, and Range List facets (in dropdown or fSelect UI mode)), add the following to your theme’s functions.php:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
add_filter( 'facetwp_facet_dropdown_show_counts', '__return_false' );

If you want to hide counts from specific facets with a dropdown UI, then use this instead:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
add_filter( 'facetwp_facet_dropdown_show_counts', function( $return, $params ) {
  if ( 'your_facet_name' == $params['facet']['name'] ) {
    $return = false;
  }
  return $return;
}, 10, 2 );

Hide dropdowns if one option is left

By interacting with facets, there will be situations when only one option (the ‘Any’ option) is left. With this code you can hide the dropdown when that happens:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
<?php
add_action( 'wp_footer', function() { ?>
    <script>
      (function($) {
        $(document).on('facetwp-loaded', function() {
          $('.facetwp-type-dropdown select').each(function () {
            if ($(this).children('option').length == 1) {
              $(this).closest('.facetwp-type-dropdown').hide();
            } else {
              $(this).closest('.facetwp-type-dropdown').show();
            }
          });
        })
      })(jQuery);
    </script>
<?php } );

See also