The archive page your theme produces is usually the least designed page on the site, and it is the one a visitor lands on from a category link.
A Post Listing block in archive mode lets you build that page yourself, laid out the way the rest of the site is.
Before You Start
- Edition: Pro — archive listings needs Nexter Blocks Pro.
- Block to enable: Post Listing, switched on under Nexter > Blocks in your WordPress dashboard.
- A template for the category archive, created in your theme’s template editor.
Steps
- Create or edit your category archive template.
- Add a Post Listing block to it.
- Set the listing type to archive, so it follows the page rather than running its own query.
- Set the layout, columns and what each card shows.
- Save and open a real category page to check it.
How It Behaves
In archive mode the block reads the page it is on instead of choosing posts itself.
- The archive mode follows the current query. The block reads the category, tag or search term of the page being viewed, so one template serves every category.
- That is the difference from an ordinary listing, which always runs its own fixed query and would show the same posts on every category page.
- It only makes sense inside a template. On an ordinary page there is no archive query to read.
- Pagination still applies, and is usually wanted here — see add pagination.
- Measured with Nexter Blocks Pro deactivated: this stops working. The block still renders a plain list of posts, so there is no error to see — just the feature quietly missing.
Limitations
- Pro only — measured with Nexter Blocks Pro deactivated, the listing renders as a plain list of posts rather than following the archive.
- It replaces a page people arrive on from search. Test it properly before shipping, because archive pages carry real traffic.
- One template covers every category, so you cannot design a different layout per category without separate templates.
- Preview in the editor is limited, since there is no real archive query there. Always check a live category URL.
- An empty category shows an empty page unless your template handles that case.
Troubleshooting
Every category shows the same posts
The block is running its own query rather than following the archive. Set the listing type to archive.
It looks empty in the editor
Expected. There is no archive query in the editor. Open a real category URL.
My theme’s archive still shows
The template is not being used for that archive. Check the template assignment in the site editor.
Pagination does not work on the archive
Check the pagination option is set on the block, and that the category has more posts than one page shows.
