Once you’ve added some portfolio posts, it’s time to create the portfolio module that will display them.

If you haven’t yet, create a new modular page where you’ll be placing the portfolio module. It can be a specific page for the portfolio, or you can also use your homepage or another page if you know the portfolio module will be there surrounded by other modules.

Enter that page in your backend and click on the “Front-End Editor” button.

By using the wrench tool add a new module. Choose Portfolio and enter a title for the module.

Let’s see the options you’ll find inside. According to the Artisan theme you’re using, these may vary a little, but the logic will be the same.

The Portfolio Layout (or Style, depending on your theme) will let you choose how you want to display the items according to different designs. Independently of the layout you choose, the portfolio module will always use the items’ title, featured image and, sometimes, the categories or the excerpt.

Another option that you’ll find no matter which theme you’re using is the “Items open…”. This allows you to decide if instead of each item opening the single view of the post, which is the regular behavior, to open the external link you’ve set for it.

In other words: when viewing the portfolio, you can click on each item to open it. If you don’t want the items to open their own content, because you’re maybe using the portfolio to list items that link to different pages (internal or external), you can select “External Link” for this option and that’s it.

Then there’s the Categories Filter, that enables a categories navigation menu above or next to the items. It lets users filter the items on the portfolio per categories. Of course, it uses the categories you’ve created for your portfolio posts.

Now, if you want to display the categories filter, but don’t want all your categories to appear there but only some of them, you can manually select which ones will appear on the option below (the Filter by).

Then come all the options that set what posts and how many exactly you would like to display:

These are:

• The “Items per page”: which lets you set the number of posts you want to display. You can use the value “-1” if you want to display all existing posts. Let’s set 6 posts, for this example.
• The “Navigation” option: which enables or disables the ability to browse older posts after the 6 posts displayed.
• The “What to show?” lets you choose whether you want to display items from all existing posts, just items from specific categories, or a custom manual selection of items.
• Finally, the “Order Items by” and “Order” options will let you decide the logic that will arrange the items on the module.

Some themes include an option called “Loading Method”, which can be Ajax or No Ajax. The Ajax method means the items will be opened right there on the same page where the portfolio module is, with a nice scrolling effect. If you choose No Ajax, then each item will take you to the single view of the item, on its own URL.

Let’s publish this module and see how it looks.