DLE Smart Filter is a post filter for DataLife Engine that works like a good online store. Visitors pick a genre, year, rating, price or any other site field and instantly see how many posts match. The filter is placed with one tag above a category list or the home feed and changes that list in place, with no new pages and no engine edits. Works with any template and DLE 15.1–21.0.

Highlights

Filter by everything on the site. Categories with subcategories, tags, author, title, date, rating, views, comments and all DLE extra fields: lists, numbers, dates, yes / no.
Counters next to every value. Each item shows how many posts will be found, empty items fade out. Visitors never land on "nothing found".
A view for every field. Checkboxes, buttons, dropdown, from–to slider with a histogram, "from 7" buttons, dates, toggle. Values can be limited, for example year only 2026, 2025, 2024.
Separate desktop and phone layouts. Top row, sidebar or a button with a panel on desktop; scrolling row or a "Filters" button with a bottom sheet on phones.
Fast on large sites too. Its own value index: on 100,000 posts counters take 1–2 seconds, and the page with the filter does not wait for them at all.
SEO pages for search queries. "Movies with DiCaprio", "Comedies of 2025": own conditions, URL, title, H1, text and sitemap. Created separately and only when you want them.

On the site

The {smart-filter name="…"} tag goes into any .tpl. Above a category list or the home feed the filter changes that list in place, the URL stays with the category, the page can be reloaded or shared.
In an article, on a static page or in a sidebar the filter leads to the chosen feed: the home page or a category.
Apply instantly, with an Apply or "Show N" button, without page reload.
Selected values are shown as chips with a remove cross, plus "Reset all", sorting and "Show more" or pages.
List search finds any value even when a field has thousands of them, such as actors.
Results use your template cards: shortstory.tpl or any other tpl, so the look does not change after filtering.
"Notify me about new" subscription: the site emails the user when a new post matches their selection.

Admin builder

Starter sets: movies, shop, classifieds, blog, empty or "pick for me" based on the site's extra fields.
Drag fields; each has its own label, view, item order, "any of" or "all at once" logic, "except", bounds, step and unit.
A field can be shown only in chosen categories or when another field has a value.
Filter conditions: where it works, which categories and posts never to show, which user groups see it.
Screens in the familiar DLE style, every action in the row menu.

Appearance

Four styles, template color or your own, corner radius, density, light and dark theme based on the site background.
Correct look from the first frame: the filter does not jump while the page loads.
All markup lives in .tpl files and can be overridden in your template folder, module updates never touch them.

SEO and statistics

Selections with parameters get noindex and a canonical without parameters, so the filter creates no duplicates in search.
Only your SEO pages are indexed, and they have their own sitemap.
Statistics show what is searched most and what was searched but not found. An SEO page is made from a popular query in one click.
The {smart-filter-seo} tag lists links to SEO pages, for example on the home page or in the footer.

Reliability

Posts added in the admin panel, on the site, by parsers and imports get into the filter automatically.
Protection against bot enumeration and a cache that is not fully cleared on every edit.
Languages: Russian, English, Ukrainian, Spanish.

"Unbound" plan

A signed key without a domain and without requests to our server.

Screenshots

Click a screenshot to zoom in

Choose a suitable plan

We offer flexible licensing options depending on your needs.

Standard

$49

3 sites
Open source code
Support 12 months
No updates
Downloads 7 days

Buy

Recommended

Extended

$73

All Standard features
10 sites
Priority support
Updates 12 months

Buy

Premium

$146

All Extended features
Unlimited number of sites
Personal consultations
Updates forever
Installation and setup
Adapted to your website (including code refinement)

Buy

UnboundFor studios and closed servers

Everything in Premium, but the key is not tied to sites and the module never contacts our server.

$327

Buy

A site is a domain together with all its subdomains.

Version history

1.0.0 current 10 November 2026 14 New 1 Improved
New 14
- Filter by everything on the site: categories and subcategories, tags, author, title, date, rating, views and all extra fields
- Admin builder: drag fields, pick a view for each, and paste the tag anywhere in the template
- Field view of your choice: checkboxes, buttons, dropdown, from–to slider, "from N" buttons
- Which values to show: all, only listed, or a range, e.g. year 2026, 2025, 2024
- Desktop and phone layouts are set separately: top row, sidebar, button with a panel or sheet
- The filter creates no pages: in a category and above the home feed it changes the list in place, elsewhere it leads to the chosen feed
- Apply instantly, with an Apply or "Show N" button, without reload or with plain links
- Counters next to every value, "except", search across all values of a list (e.g. any of thousands of actors), "Show more" and pages
- Card template: results use any template tpl, so the look does not change after filtering
- SEO pages are created separately: own conditions (or none, for a selection page), URL, title, description, H1, text, sitemap and any filter
- Honest SEO: selections with parameters get noindex and a canonical without them, only SEO pages are indexed, robots.txt hint included
- Subscription to new posts matching a selection, statistics of popular queries
- Appearance: color and theme like the template or your own, full freedom via the module .tpl files
- A field can be shown only in a chosen category or when another field has a value; posts added from the site and by parsers get into the filter automatically
Improved 1
- Fast on large sites: on 100,000 posts counters take 1–2 seconds (up to 85 before), the page does not wait for counters, the cache is not fully cleared on every edit

DLE Smart Filter