Building a Dynamic Product Gallery in Webflow Using Native Filter and Sort

Setting up the Products CMS Collection

Start by enabling CMS in your Webflow project and creating a new Collection called Products. Add the following fields:

• Name – Plain Text
• Price – Number (set to currency format if desired)
• Category – Plain Text (you can also use a Reference field if you maintain a separate Categories collection)
• Image – Image

Populate the collection with a few sample items so you have data to test the controls.

Adding Filter and Sort Controls

Above the Collection List that will display your products, place a Dropdown element for filtering and a Select element for sorting.

Select the Dropdown, open its settings, and bind it to the Category field of the Products collection. Enable the Show all option if you want an unfiltered view.

Select the Sort element, bind it to the Price field, and choose the two sorting options: Low to High and High to Low.

Worked Example: Creating a Shop Page

1. In the Designer, add a new static page named Shop.
2. Drop a Collection List onto the page and set its Collection to Products.
3. Inside the list item, add an Image bound to the Image field, a Heading bound to Name, and a Paragraph bound to Price (formatted as currency).
4. Place a Dropdown above the list, bind it to Category, and set the placeholder to All categories.
5. Place a Select above the list (or beside the dropdown), bind it to Price, and label the options Price: low → high and Price: high → low.
6. Save the changes, switch to Preview mode, and interact with the controls. The list should update instantly without a page reload.
7. Publish the site, open the live URL, and repeat the test to confirm the behavior persists on the published site.

Trade‑offs and When to Add Custom Code

The native Filter and Sort widget works only on fields that are exposed in the collection and support the basic operators (equals for text, less‑than/greater‑than for numbers). It does not provide:

• Range sliders for price intervals
• Multi‑select category filters
• Search across multiple fields
• Custom sorting logic beyond ascending/descending on a single field

If your catalog needs any of those features, you can embed a small custom‑code snippet (using Webflow’s Embed element) or integrate a third‑party filtering library. For simple catalogs with a handful of categories and a price sort, the built‑in controls are sufficient and keep the site lightweight.

Closing: Start with the native controls, verify the live behavior, and only add custom code when the built‑in options fall short.