Shareable Links

Every view of your directory is a link. As a visitor filters, sorts, and searches, the plugin writes their choices into the page’s address bar — so any state they land on is a URL they can copy, bookmark, or send to a colleague. Open that link and the directory comes up already filtered, sorted, and searched the same way. This article covers those URL parameters: what each one does, how to build shareable links by hand, and the important difference between a parameter that pre-selects a choice and a shortcode attribute that hard-scopes the whole directory.

For the shortcode attributes themselves, see Shortcode Options. For the sort keys in depth, see Sorting, Ordering & Analytics. For setting up the filter groups these links reference, see Managing Your Filters.

How shareable links work

When a visitor ticks a category, chooses a sort, types in the search box, or checks a filter option, the directory re-runs instantly and updates the URL in the address bar to match. Nothing is submitted and no page reloads — the address bar just tracks the current view. That means the visitor never has to think about links at all: whatever they’re looking at is already a shareable URL, ready to copy.

You can also build these links yourself and hand them out — in an email, a docs page, a “works with” button, or a marketing campaign — to drop people straight into a useful slice of the directory. Point the link at the page that holds your [integration_directory] shortcode and append the parameters below.

The url_params switch

All of this depends on the url_params shortcode attribute, which is true by default. While it is on, the directory both writes visitor choices to the address bar and reads parameters back out of it on load. Set url_params="false" and you turn off the entire mechanism at once: the address bar no longer updates as visitors interact, and none of the parameters in this article do anything on that placement. Leave it at the default unless you have a specific reason to freeze a directory to a single fixed view.

Heads up: if a page has more than one directory, only the first one with url_params enabled reads and writes the address bar. Additional directories still filter, sort, and search on their own, but they don’t sync to the URL — so a shareable link reflects that first directory. To place several directories on one page, see Shortcode Options.

Pre-select vs. hard-scope

This is the single most important distinction in this article, so it is worth stating plainly before the parameter list.

• URL parameters PRE-SELECT. A parameter like ?category=crm or ?f_pricing=free arrives with certain boxes already checked, but the visitor is still looking at the full directory and can uncheck them, add others, or clear everything. It’s a starting point, not a cage.
• The category= and criteria= shortcode ATTRIBUTES HARD-SCOPE. Set on the shortcode (for example [integration_directory category="crm"]), they permanently limit the directory to that slice and hide the matching filter section — the visitor cannot see or reach anything outside it. That is a page-author decision baked into the placement, not something a link can undo.

Heads up: the URL parameters ?category= and ?criteria= look like their same-named attributes but behave the opposite way. The parameters only pre-select — the visitor can still change them. The attributes scope and hide. If you need a locked-down view that visitors can’t widen, use the attribute in the shortcode (see Shortcode Options), not a link.

Pre-select parameters

These arrive with a sort, category, search term, or filter option already chosen. In every case the visitor can change the selection once the page loads.

Sort: ?sort=<key>

Opens the directory with a specific sort active. There are eight keys:

Example: https://example.com/integrations/?sort=newest. For how these appear in the Sort by dropdown and how Most popular unlocks, see Sorting, Ordering & Analytics.

Category: ?category=<slug,slug>

Pre-selects one or more categories by slug. Pass a comma-separated list to tick several at once, for example ?category=crm,accounting. The visitor sees the full directory with those category boxes checked and can change them freely. (Slugs are generated from the category name — see Setting Up Categories.)

Search: ?q=<text>

Prefills the search box with your text on load, for example ?q=payments. This only has a visible effect where the search box is present — enable it with the search attribute or the ?search=true override below.

Filter groups: ?f_<key>=<slug,slug>

Each filter group has its own parameter, ?f_<key>=, where <key> is the group key — not a taxonomy slug and not the group’s display name. The value is one option slug or a comma-separated list, and combining parameters pre-selects across several groups at once:

• ?f_pricing=free — pre-selects Free in the Pricing group.
• ?f_pricing=free,paid — pre-selects both Free and Paid in the Pricing group.
• ?f_pricing=free&f_platform=cloud — pre-selects Free in Pricing and Cloud in Platform.

These pre-selections behave exactly as if the visitor had checked the same boxes by hand. For where group keys come from and how selections combine within and across groups, see Managing Your Filters.

Legacy: ?criteria=<slug,slug>

The older ?criteria= parameter still works. It pre-selects options in the main filter group, exactly as it always did, so existing shared links keep working with no changes. New links can use the main filter’s own ?f_<key>= parameter instead — both target the same group.

Display-override parameters

A second family of parameters overrides the shortcode’s display attributes for a single visit, letting one shared link present the directory differently without editing the page. Each mirrors a shortcode attribute of the same name:

These are handy for one-off placements, but for a permanent look it’s cleaner to set the attribute on the shortcode itself. See Shortcode Options for what each attribute accepts.

Worked examples

You don’t change the shortcode for any of these — you build a link to the page that already holds your directory and append the parameters.

Newest, free integrations

Lands on the newest integrations with the Free pricing option pre-selected (the visitor can still add or remove options):

https://example.com/integrations/?sort=newest&f_pricing=free

Sorted by Most popular

Opens the directory ordered by click-throughs, once that option has unlocked:

https://example.com/integrations/?sort=popular

A pre-searched CRM view in list layout

Pre-selects the CRM category, prefills the search box, and switches this visit to the list layout — all still adjustable by the visitor:

https://example.com/integrations/?category=crm&q=sync&layout=list&search=true

Related articles

• Shortcode Options — the [integration_directory] attributes, including url_params and the hard-scoping category and criteria attributes.
• Sorting, Ordering & Analytics — the eight sort keys, the Sort by dropdown, and how Most popular unlocks.
• Managing Your Filters — filter groups, group keys, and how filter selections combine, behind ?f_<key>=.