How Move Featured Entries to Top works

Move Featured Entries to Top puts a View’s featured entries above its other entries. This article covers where the setting is, the order entries appear in, and how it works with paging, searches, filters and Views that use more than one form.

Featured entries are the entries in a featured tier, such as Gold or Silver, or the entries you star in Gravity Forms when the form has no tiers. To set up tiers, see Getting started with Featured Entries.

Turn on Move Featured Entries to Top #

The setting is off for new Views.

Edit the View.
In the Settings box, click the Featured Entries tab.
Turn on Move Featured Entries to Top.
Click Update.

The setting used to be on the View Settings tab. Views that had it on keep it on.

You can also turn it on for one embed with the shortcode attribute featured_entries_to_top="1", such as [gravityview id="123" featured_entries_to_top="1"].

The order entries appear in #

With the setting on, the View lists entries in this order:

The entries in the first tier, such as Gold.
The entries in the next tier, and so on down the list of tiers.
Every other entry.

Inside each group, entries keep the View’s sort order. If the View sorts by business name, the Gold listings are in name order, then the Silver listings are in name order, and so on.

Only the tiers this View shows count. If the View’s Featured Entries tab is set to Only these tiers with only Gold checked, Silver listings stay in the View’s usual order.

To change the order of the tiers, go to the form’s Featured Tiers page and use the arrows on each tier. An entry that matches more than one tier is in the first one it matches.

Highlight featured entries without moving them #

Leave Move Featured Entries to Top off. Featured entries keep their tier’s badge and row color and stay in the View’s usual order. This suits lists where the order matters, such as events sorted by date.

Paging #

Featured entries fill the first pages of the View, then the other entries follow. They don’t repeat on every page.

For example, with 25 entries per page and 30 Gold listings, page 1 shows 25 Gold listings. Page 2 starts with the other 5 Gold listings, then the first 20 entries that are not featured.

The entry count at the top of the View includes the featured entries, so the number of pages stays right.

When a View has more than 500 featured entries

A View moves up to 500 featured entries to the top. Entries past that number keep their badges and row color and appear in the View’s usual order. The limit keeps each page fast when a tier matches thousands of entries.

Developers can change the limit with the gk/featured-entries/max-on-top filter. Set it to 0 to move every featured entry.

/**
 * Moves up to 1,000 featured entries to the top of View 123.
 *
 * @param int                    $max  The most featured entries on top. Default 500.
 * @param \GV\View               $view The View.
 *
 * @return int
 */
add_filter( 'gk/featured-entries/max-on-top', function ( $max, $view ) {
	if ( 123 === (int) $view->ID ) {
		return 1000;
	}

	return $max;
}, 10, 2 );

/**
 * Moves up to 1,000 featured entries to the top of View 123.
 *
 * @param int                    $max  The most featured entries on top. Default 500.
 * @param \GV\View               $view The View.
 *
 * @return int
 */
add_filter( 'gk/featured-entries/max-on-top', function ( $max, $view ) {
	if ( 123 === (int) $view->ID ) {
		return 1000;
	}

	return $max;
}, 10, 2 );

Searches and filters #

A featured entry appears only when the View would show it anyway. These all apply to featured entries the same way they apply to other entries:

A visitor’s search in the Search Bar.
The View’s filters, such as Advanced Filter conditions or Show only approved entries.
A Start Date or End Date filter.

When a search leaves out some featured entries, the ones that match stay on top.

To keep featured entries on top of every search, use the gravityview_featured_entries_always_show filter. See How to always display featured entries, regardless of search results.

Note: With that filter on, featured entries also show when they don’t match the View’s own filters, such as Advanced Filter conditions. Use it only when every featured entry should appear in the View.

Views that use more than one form #

How featured entries move depends on how the View uses its forms.

The View	What happens
Combines entries from several forms	Each entry uses the tiers of its own form. The first tier of every form comes first, then the second tier of every form, and so on.
Joins forms, so each row holds fields from two forms	Tiers give entries their badges and colors but don’t move them. Move Featured Entries to Top moves starred entries, as before.

The Featured Entries tab tells you which of these applies to the View.

Troubleshooting: Featured entries don’t move to the top #

Check these, in any order:

Move Featured Entries to Top is on in the View’s Featured Entries tab, and you clicked Update.
The entry is in a tier this View shows. Look at This View shows in the same tab.
The entry matches the tier’s conditions. Open the tier on the form’s Featured Tiers page to check them.
For a paid tier, the order is marked Paid, or the subscription is Active, and the number of days hasn’t run out.
The entry matches the View’s search and filters. See Searches and filters.
The View doesn’t join forms. See Views that use more than one form.
If the entry is featured with the gravityview_featured_entries_enable filter in PHP, it gets the featured look but stays in place. That filter only changes how the entry looks. To move it, put it in a tier, for example with the Starred condition.

Frequently asked questions #

Do featured entries stay on top when I embed a View with an offset?

Yes. When you embed a View with the offset attribute of the [gravityview] shortcode, featured entries stay at the top. The offset skips that many of the other entries. See all shortcode parameters.