Very new to this, need help

Thanks for your questions and for the details on your application goals. I know that the documentation is more reference than tutorial and can be dense for someone new to WordPress. I appreciate the efforts you’ve made and your progress.

Your [mla_tag_cloud] shortcode looks fine and is working for you. The [mla_gallery] shortcode needs just a bit of work. Here are some suggestions:

1. mla_output=list is not one of the supported output formats. For your application the default value, gallery will do what you want. You should just remove the mla_output parameter.
2. You wrote “I did not tag everything as I don’t want images to display, only PDFs, word docx, excel docs” The default display for [mla_gallery], as for the WordPress [gallery] shortcode on which it is based, includes only image MIME types. To display other types like the examples you gave you must add one or more MIME types. Since you are filtering your display by an Att. Category term you can simply add post_mime_type=all to your shortcode. If you wanted, say, PDF documents only you would code something like post_mime_type=application/pdf.
3. You wrote “I would prefer a list of icons…” The default for non-image types is to display the item Title. You can display an appropriate icon by adding size=icon to your shortcode.
4. You want to display “title of document, category, and tags assigned” The easy way to do this would be to add an mla_caption parameter to the shortcode. More elaborate formatting can be done with a custom markup template. Start with something like: mla_caption="{+title+}<br />Category: {+terms:attachment_category(name)+}<br />Tag(s): {+terms:attachment_tag(name)+}"
5. You might also add columns=2 to give more room for each item displayed.

Putting all that together gives you:

[mla_gallery attachment_category="{+template:({+request:term_slug+}|a-bad-term)+}" post_mime_type=application/pdf size=icon mla_caption="{+title+}<br />Category: {+terms:attachment_category(name)+}<br />Tag(s): {+terms:attachment_tag(name)+}" columns=2 mla_nolink_text="<br />Click a term to display the gallery.<br />"]

As I said, custom markup and style templates would give you even more control over the results, but the above is a good place to start. I hope that answers your second question.

Your first question, “Is it possible to click on a category and get a sub-list of tags?“, is more complicated than it looks. Each WordPress taxonomy is independent from the others, e.g., there is no built-in relationship between categories and tags. A more precise, technical expression of your question would be “Is it possible to click on a category and get a sub list of tags assigned to the items that have been assigned to that category?” That’s a mouthful, but the steps required to get the answer you want are:

1. find all of the documents assigned to a given category,
2. find all of the tags assigned to those documents,
3. remove the duplicates and display the resulting list of tags.

It is not too difficult to do that using the hooks built in to [mla_tag_cloud] or the new [mla_term_list], but it requires some PHP code in a small custom plugin or added to your theme’s functions.php file. If that is worth the effort for your application let me know and I can be more specific.

I hope the above suggestions are helpful. I will leave this topic unresolved until I hear back from you. Thanks for your interest in the plugin.

Based on your comments so far I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20160624 with a new /examples/mla-ui-elements-example.php.txt example plugin. The new example plugin has shortcodes that generate “Terms Search” and “Keyword Search” textboxes that retain the entered value when the page is refreshed. I have also added a shortcode for generating a “items per page” textbox.

If you install the new Development Version and the new example plugin your page could look like this:

[su_row][su_column size="1/3"]
<form id="mla-search-form" action="." method="post">
<h2 style="margin-top:0px;">Search by Keyword</h2>
[muie_keyword_search mla_search_connector='OR']
<h2 style="margin-top:0px;">Tags Search</h2>
[muie_terms_search mla_terms_taxonomies=attachment_tag mla_term_delimiter=' ' mla_term_connector='OR']
<h2 style="margin-top:30px;">Search by Category</h2>
[mla_term_list taxonomy=attachment_category number=0 mla_output=checklist mla_option_value="{+slug+}" use_filters=true]

Items per page: [muie_per_page numberposts=10]
<input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Search" /></form>[/su_column]

[su_column size="2/3"]
[mla_gallery attachment_category="{+template:({+request:tax_input.attachment_category+}|muie-no-terms)+}" post_mime_type=application/pdf add_filters_to=attachment_category mla_output="paginate_links,prev_next"]

[mla_gallery attachment_category="{+template:({+request:tax_input.attachment_category+}|muie-no-terms)+}" add_filters_to=attachment_category post_mime_type=application/pdf columns=2 link=file mla_caption="{+title+} : {+description+}" mla_nolink_text="<br />Click a term to display resources.<br />" mla_viewer=true orderby="title" ][/su_column][/su_row]

To get the Development Version, follow the instructions in this earlier topic:

Shortcode not working in (special) widget

You can follow the instructions in the “MLA Gallery Filters and Actions (Hooks)” section of the /Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab to access and install the example plugin.

I look forward to working with you to refine the solution and completing your application design. Thanks for your help with this great example of how to use the new [mla_term_list] shortcode.

Thanks for your updates and the additional information.

I regret that my earlier instructions may have confused you. It looks like you may have installed the wrong example shortcode ( MLA Gallery Filters and Actions (Hooks) ).

You can follow the steps in the MLA Gallery Filters and Actions (Hooks) section but you must access a different example plugin file. Look for the mla-ui-elements-example.php.txt file.

When you have installed the right file you should see “MLA UI Elements Example” in your plugins list. That is the one you must activate to handle the [muie_ ... ] shortcodes. Again, I regret any confusion.

If you want the “Tags Search” to look in both “att. categories and att. tags“, change your shortcode to:

[muie_terms_search mla_terms_taxonomies="attachment_tag,attachment_category mla_term_delimiter=' ' mla_term_connector='OR']

Give the above suggestions a try and let me know how they work for you.

Thanks for working with me offline to work through the taxonomy term searching aspects of your application. Thanks as well for putting up with the shortcomings of finding and installing the example plugin.

I have uploaded an MLA Development Version dated 20160802 that contains a completely new approach to browsing and installing the MLA Example Plugins. If you navigate to the Settings/Media library Assistant Documentation tab and click the “Example Plugins” button you will see a new submenu that lists all the example plugins and give you a “one-click” action for installing them. I hope this will make future installations of the example plugins more convenient for all MLA users. Thanks for helping to inspire this MLA enhancement.