The Mount Prospect Public Library wanted their staff to be able to leverage their list systems API too easily create lists in their WordPress posts and pages.
I created a custom block plugin that allowed them to easily add dynamic lists to their posts and pages.
After choosing the Featured MPPL List block, the user is presented with three radio buttons, Adult List, Teen List, Youth List.
When a radio button is selected a list of the lists is displayed.
After choosing a list, the block allows for customization. The number of items in the list can be chosen, the number of columns to display it in, and the background color.
Image of a Horror list
These public lists are dynamic and will pull the latest content from the list system api, so if the list is updated, the changes will be shown the next time the page is loaded.
This block allows library staff to quickly and easily add their lists to posts and pages and not have to worry that the content will become stale.
Example of Featured List Block working on this site.
The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger… More
The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust, where nightmares stalk and no one goes. The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change. Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned. Less
"At ten years old, the Heir of Jasad fled a massacre that takes her entire family. At fifteen,… More
"At ten years old, the Heir of Jasad fled a massacre that takes her entire family. At fifteen, she buried her first body. At twenty, the clock is ticking on Sylvia's third attempt at home. Nizahl's armies have laid waste to Jasad and banned magic across the four remaining kingdoms. Fortunately, Sylvia's magic is as good at playing dead as she is. When the Nizahl Heir tracks a group of Jasadis to Sylvia's village, the quiet life she's crafted unravels. Calculating and cold, Arin's tactical brilliance is surpassed only by his hatred for magic. When a mistake exposes Sylvia's magic, Arin offers her an escape: compete as Nizahl's Champion in the Alcalah tournament and win immunity from persecution. To win the deadly Alcalah, Sylvia must work with Arin to free her trapped magic, all while staying a step ahead of his efforts to uncover her identity. But as the two grow closer, Sylvia realizes winning her freedom means destroying any chance of reuniting Jasad under her banner. The scorched kingdom is rising again, and Sylvia will have to choose between the life she's earned and the one she left behind"– Less
"As an elite spy and the Queen's Third-in-Command, Aya has dedicated herself to a life of… More
"As an elite spy and the Queen's Third-in-Command, Aya has dedicated herself to a life of discipline and duty, using her gods-given abilities to keep dark magic from ever returning to the realm. Her oath ensures she will always act to protect those she fights alongside–including Will, the Queen's Enforcer and Aya's bitter rival. Forced by circumstance to work together, Aya and Will struggle to come to an uneasy truce. But when tragedy strikes, Aya instinctively reacts, unleashing a power that hasn't been seen in over 500 years. Shaken, she's confronted with an impossible truth: one that threatens the precious grip she keeps on her control. One that forces her to work with Will to discover who–or what–she really is. And one that could turn her into a weapon in a war she doesn't know how to win. With Will at her side and untold power at her fingertips, Aya will have to decide: Has she been sent to save the realm she loves…or destroy it?"– Less
"The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cult… More
"The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant. Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy. He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen. Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world"– Less
