Can Webflow's interface be used to link buttons to filter and sort collection lists, similar to how the Isotope plugin allows for filtering and sorting?

Webflow’s native interface supports basic filtering and sorting of Collection Lists via CMS and Filter settings, but dynamic user-driven filtering (like with Isotope) through button clicks is not supported natively.

1. What Webflow Natively Supports

• You can predefine filters and sort orders inside the Collection List settings.
• Apply CMS filters to show specific data based on field values (e.g., only show blog posts with a certain category).
• Sorting can be based on fields like date, name, or custom number fields.

However, this setup is not interactive for users—filters are static and defined at design time, not user-controlled via buttons on the front-end.

2. What You Can’t Do Natively

• Webflow does not provide built-in tools to:
• Filter Collection Lists in real-time via button clicks (e.g., filtering portfolio items by category).
• Dynamically sort items by date, price, or title in real-time.
• Animate or rearrange list items based on user interaction like Isotope does.

3. Alternatives to Achieve Isotope-like Behavior

To replicate Isotope-style filtering in Webflow, you need custom code or third-party plugins:

• Use Jetboost (no-code):

• Jetboost.io integrates with Webflow and allows real-time filtering, search, and dynamic sorting.

• It’s compatible with Collection Lists and does not require coding.

• Custom JavaScript with Isotope or MixItUp:

• You can integrate the Isotope or MixItUp libraries via custom code embeds.

• This requires:

  • Adding custom JavaScript to handle filtering logic.
  • Using HTML data attributes on collection items for category tagging.
  • Disabling Webflow's default pagination, since JavaScript libraries won’t interact with paginated content.

• Finsweet’s CMS Library (https://www.finsweet.com/cms/library/):

• Offers powerful filtering, sorting, and pagination tools using custom attributes (no manual JavaScript).

• More developer-friendly than Jetboost and open-source.

4. Important Considerations

• Pagination Limitation: If using JavaScript-based filtering, make sure all data is loaded on the page (up to 100 Collection items per list). Paginated items can’t be filtered unless you're using a solution like Finsweet’s CMS Load.
• Performance: Rendering many items at once can impact performance—test your site on mobile and slow networks.

Summary

Webflow’s native CMS tools allow static filtering and sorting, but not interactive, Isotope-style front-end filtering. To achieve dynamic filtering through buttons, use third-party tools like Jetboost, Finsweet's CMS Library, or embed custom JavaScript with a library like Isotope or MixItUp.