I am running a query loop for a taxonomy (post categories) and we need to do a manual sort, or at least pick some kind of sorting where we can push something to the front or back etc. The only way I can find to do a manual sort is by doing the “include list” option. Then I can add categories to the list and it sorts in that order.
The problem is, the order can’t be changed once I’ve added items to the include list. I have to basically delete everyting and re-add the list over again to change the ordering.
The second problem is that new categories won’t automatically be added to an include list, so it’s not really the best method in my situation.
All I want is a somewhat customizable sort order which will automatically include new categories when added.
I could add a custom field with ACF to the categories like a number field for a sort order, but how would I make use of it? I would want “default sort” to be by name and use the sort order as a priority. For example all the categories could be sort order 1 (alphabetical) unless I also have sort order 2 and 3 and 4 which go first. If multiple categories have sort order 2 then those are also sorted by name etc.
At the end of the day, we just want to sort by name but push a particular category or two to the top. Ultimately, the most flexible is a custom sort order like the include list, if only it could allow drag-n-drop resorting, and automatically adding new categories into the list.