shortcode to include description or short desc

Hello @sarahsas ,

We do not have a shortcode attribute that will display the description or short description out of the box, but what can you do is override or create a new template ( documentation here and here ), and display the information however you want.

Here is an example of such a template: https://gist.github.com/razvanaldea89/230a3b6f44da86f99cc4c0318b5705c6

Both the description and the short description are displayed here. Now, if you want to make this template global, please go to dashboard > Downloads > Settings > General > Default Template and select custom. A new input should appear, called Custom Template. Depending on what you’ve named your template ( documentation I gave you above should explain ), you’ll need to type it in. In my example, the filename is content-download-sarahsas.php, so the template name that I need to type in is sarahsas. If you want to display in on specific shortcodes, please use the “template” attribute on the shortcode and type in the name of the template, in my case sarahsas.

Hope everything is clear.

Warmly,
Razvan

Hi @raldea89 Thank you so much, this makes perfect sense. I’ll give it a shot and report back if there are any issues. Thanks so much for your guidance, this is great.

@raldea89 This method works great if I use the template=”mytemplate” in the [downloads] shortcode. However, your instructions on how to make it the default template in the settings doesn’t seem to work. The instruction text below the box you reference says “Choose which template is used for?[download]?shortcodes by default (this can be overridden by the?format?argument).” – which to me means it overrides the “download” shortcode, rather than the “downloadS” shortcode – and when I visit the TEMPLATES tab under General Settings, it says “None of Download Monitor’s output templates are being overridden by your theme.” – is there a way to override the “downloadS” template somewhere in the settings instead?

Hello @sarahsas ,

Have you tried putting the custom template there? It sets a default template for the [downloads] shortcode also, not just for [download]. And it doesn’t show you that any template was overridden because you created a custom template, you did not override a default Download Monitor template.

Please try with the setting I gave you before and let me know if that worked. If you already tried and did not work, please give me a screenshot of the dashboard > Downloads > Settings > General page.

Warmly,
Razvan

Hi @raldea89 yes I tried putting the custom template there and it did not work yesterday, but it appears to be working today when I tested it again, so it was likely a caching issue yesterday. Thanks for following up! Here’s screenshots for your reference just in case… https://imgur.com/a/hV88IQs

Thanks so much!

Hi again @raldea89, a couple more questions about shortcodes… is there any way to disable the number of downloads appearing next to the list items in the [downloads] shortcode? Or can I modify the template you made for me to do so?

Also wondering if there is a way to set orderby to title and order to asc in the custom template as well? Can you point me towards some documentation for this?

Thanks so much for your guidance.

@sarahsas – as much as we’d love to help out, unfortunately, these questions are outside the scope of the free support we can offer on these forums.

Thanks for understanding!

Warm regards,
/Cristian.

Hi @cristianraiber, understood, I’m not expecting you to write the template for me, I was hoping you could point me towards some more in-depth documentation on the subject? Particularly the part about disabling the download count text next to each download link in the list?

For example, I found the following help article in your docs that indicates there should be an option in the settings to disable the download count and show title only:

https://download-monitor.com/kb/hide-the-download-count/

However, the article seems to be outdated, because I do not see this option in any settings at the moment. Please advise?

Hello @sarahsas,

Please go to your WordPress dashboard > Downloads > Settings > General > General Settings > Default Template > please set it to ‘Title’ > Save changes.

Let me know if this is what you are looking for!

Warmly,

Beatrice.

That’s the same as what the help article says, but this Default Template field doesn’t exist in my dashboard. But nevermind, I found a way to achieve it nonetheless. Thanks!