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How to Create a Listing Template for Post Types in Elementor

How to Create a Listing Template for Post Types in Elementor

Learn how to use the Listing template functionality from the JetEngine WordPress plugin to create listing templates for dynamic content.

Before you start, check the tutorial requirements:

  • Elementor (Free version)

  • JetEngine plugin installed and activated

With the JetEngine plugin, you can dynamically pull the content from the backend to the Elementor page builder to display it on the front end. This tutorial uncovers how to create a listing template to display the content in the Listing Grid widget

A listing template can be created for the WordPress default posts, but you can build a custom post type (CPT) as well. For example, we will use the “Country” CPT for this tutorial.

Listing Creation

Add a new listing item

Proceed to the WordPress Dashboard > JetEngine > Listings tab and press the “Add New” button.

listing items list

Set up listing item

Once the Setup Listing Item window has opened, these fields should be set:

setup listing template for the post type
  • Listing source — we are now talking about the listing template for the posts, so choose the “Posts” option in this drop-down menu;
  • From post type — here, you should select the post type from which the content will be pulled. For example, it can be named “Country.” Take into consideration that you can create a listing template for the default WordPress post types as well;
  • Listing Item Name — type the name for the listing here;
  • Listing View — in this drop-down menu, you can choose to create the listing using Elementor, Gutenberg, or Bricks. For now, we select the “Elementor” option.

Afterward, click the “Create Listing Item” button.

Fill Listing with Content

Adjust listing item settings

First, you can click the “gear” icon in the bottom left corner to open the Listing Item Settings and unfold the Listing Settings tab. There are such options:

listing item settings
  • Listing source and From post type — check if the source is set correctly. If you want to set other options for these fields — reload the page afterward to be able to reach the appropriate meta field options for dynamic widgets;
  • Preview width — here, you can set the width of the listing card by moving the slider indicator or typing the needed number of pixels. For example, we set “400” width;
  • Make listing item clickable — if enabled, users can proceed to another page with the post details after clicking. Learn more from the Listing Template Overview.

Display content with Dynamic Widgets

The listing item can be customized with any widgets you find handy. For this tutorial, we will display dynamic post data with Dynamic Widgets found in the Listing Elements tab of the Elementor Editor panel.

listing elements tab

First, we placed the Dynamic Image widget to show the post featured image. The “Post thumbnail” option is set by default in the Source field.

dynamic image widget displays post thumbnail

Then, we dragged and dropped the Dynamic Field widget to present the post title. We kept the default settings: “Post/Term/User/Object Data” Source and “Title” Object Field.

We also set the HTML tag to “H2.”

dynamic field widget displays post title

Afterward, we added the Dynamic Meta widget, which displays the post date, author, and comments.

dynamic meta widget

If some tab is unnecessary, it can be deleted (e.g., “comments”). 

The unfolding tab opens its settings, where an icon, prefix, and suffix can be modified.

For instance, we set the Icon for the “date” tab.

icon for dynamic meta date

For the “author” tab, we set the Prefix

prefix for dynamic meta

More settings are presented in the Date Settings, Author Settings, and Comments Settings of the Content widget section.

For example, the Format can be altered in the Date Settings tab.

format date option in the dynamic meta widget

To show the post excerpt, we inputted the Dynamic Field widget again, kept the “Post/Term/User/Object Data” Source, and picked the “Excerpt” Object Field.

We enabled the Automatically generated excerpt toggle and set the Custom length to “20.” 

Warning

Be aware that the excerpt text length will be cut to the adjusted number of words only on the front end; on the backend changes won’t be applied.

custom length of the post excerpt in the dynamic field widget

Eventually, we placed the Dynamic Link widget with the “Permalink” Source. If this option is set, users can proceed to the post single page after clicking the link.

Warning

It is not recommended to use multiple linking methods simultaneously inside a listing item. This includes using the Dynamic Link widget and enabling the Make listing item clickable option described in the Adjust listing item settings chapter. To ensure a clear and consistent user experience, it is better to choose one linking method for the listing item.

dynamic link widget

Customize style settings

Style settings can be configured for widgets in the Elementor Editor. For example, we set the background and text color, padding, and border radius for the Dynamic Link widget.

style settings in elementor

The Advanced settings can also be tuned. For example, you can set gaps between widgets by adjusting the Padding.

padding in the advanced widget settings

As the final touch, we set the background color in the Style settings tab for the Section.

background color for the section in elementor editor

The listing template design created here will be applied to the entire Listing Grid on the page. To learn how to combine different listing designs, such as creating different item background colors in a grid, refer to the How to Use Alternative Listing Template Injections in Listing Grid Widget tutorial.

To save changes, we hit the “Update” button.

Place the Listing Grid Widget on a Page

Listing items can be displayed with the Listing Grid widget placed on a page, post, or template. We headed to the WordPress Dashboard > Pages > Add New Page tab, entered the new page title, and hit the “Edit with Elementor” button.

edit page with elementor

In Elementor Editor, we drag-n-dropped the Listing Grid widget and chose the recently created Listing. We also enabled the Equal columns height toggle to make listing item height equal in the grid.

listing grid widget
Things to know

The Listing Grid widget allows applying a Post Query to retrieve specific posts, but this is a legacy option. Therefore, we recommend creating a custom post query using the JetEngine Query Builder feature and applying it in the Custom Query tab of the widget.

custom query option for the listing grid widget

After modifying the content and style settings, we pressed the “Publish/Update” button.

Check the Result

Open the page on the front end and check the results. 

listing grid with posts on the front end

After clicking the “Read More” button, we were redirected to the post single page. Learn how to craft a custom single page from the How to Create a WordPress Single Post Page Template tutorial.

post single page

That’s all. Now you know how to create listing templates for posts, pulling dynamic content for your WordPress website with the JetEngine plugin.

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