What is the correct term for a tool that filters content based on metadata?

After additional research, the answer appears to be that the term “taxonomy” encompasses the two sorting tools most common in WordPress. Those are categories, which can be hierarchical, and tags, which cannot have a parent-child relationship.

A simple example would be a custom post type called cafes in which you might have parent categories such as districts, child categories such as neighborhoods, and various tags to describe the general atmosphere.

Related Posts:

  1. How to create a custom search for custom post type?
  2. Extending the search context in the admin list post screen
  3. Creating a search form for custom fields
  4. group search results by post type?
  5. Development of a WordPress Search Plugin – Best Practices
  6. Admin Area Custom Type Search By Meta Fields Without Title & Content
  7. Custom post type admin search
  8. Using standard search function with custom post type
  9. The right way to create a custom search page for complex custom post types
  10. Search Custom Post Type with all meta attached?
  11. filter search result with custom post type meta key
  12. Include images from pages in wp search.php results in default wp search
  13. Backend search; include CPT meta?
  14. Custom Search | Wrong output & question
  15. Limit search form to 4 custom post types only
  16. Group search results by post type, but hide post types with no results
  17. Search results ordered by custom post types are not grouped
  18. How can I include meta box content when searching?
  19. Customize Search to only search current custom post type
  20. How to search from specific post type with tags?
  21. Include different loop templates in search query
  22. Search tags in CPTs
  23. How to search CPT’s by meta query from the admin dashboard?
  24. Set meta_query only for specific post type
  25. multiple search forms and search results
  26. Add custom post type archives to search results?
  27. CPT Meta Searching
  28. How to filter search results by post type?
  29. How to create an advanced filter search?
  30. How to search map address in custom post type?
  31. Custom search results page query, link permalink to post title while separating by post types
  32. Custom Search for Drafts in Custom Post Type
  33. Including Custom Meta with posts_where query
  34. Multiple meta_values in the pre_get_posts filter?
  35. How to order separated Custom Post Search results
  36. search also in taxonomy, tags and custom fields
  37. Custom Post Type And “fopen”
  38. Filter custom posts using auto populated dropdown selectors
  39. Including metaboxes from custom post types in global search — continued
  40. What to and how to proceed with CPT to make DB small and efficient?
  41. Auto Complete Search
  42. Searching Custom Post Types
  43. How do i search authors from search form using author’s name
  44. Remotely search WordPress sites using xml-rpc
  45. BBPress Search results in WordPress search
  46. Search filter triggered & sort by custom post type
  47. Set Custom Post Type in Widget Settings for use in Widget
  48. Displaying and searching Custom Posts
  49. Searching Custom Fields
  50. dropdowboxes with pre-selected custom fields optios that filters the results according seach needs
  51. Different results between permalink and query var search
  52. How to let users choose where to search for posts?
  53. WordPress Custom Search by post_type
  54. What content types are shown at a search page?
  55. Can NOT search my custom post type?
  56. Custom post_type search pages
  57. Pagination Error : Duplicate argument being outputted
  58. Custom Empty Results page for my Custom Post Type
  59. Select2 AJAX and WP Query Returns ALL and does not filter
  60. Category Search / Custom Post Type search on my website. Custom Post Types that are “page-like”?
  61. Searching post types
  62. Blank search results on custom search
  63. Limit search field to just search a custom post type with custom fields
  64. Building a Data Intensive Website with WordPress
  65. Display future posts in search
  66. Redirecting search to specific templates with $_GET[“post_type”]
  67. Search custom type post
  68. WordPress CPT Taxonomy Dashboard Search – How to include taxonomy in search?
  69. Is it possible to get the specific content on the search page?
  70. Search for custom field input of a custom post type in ajax live search
  71. Creating a custom WP query for a Custom Post Type
  72. In the php, how can I have a category of a custom post type display?
  73. Search Function not searching correct custom_post_type even though post_type is defined in search args
  74. search results to show individual ACF fields from inside custom posts
  75. Custom search for a custom post type in WordPress
  76. Advanced search form with multiple custom fields
  77. Search in multiple specific post types
  78. I can not display search template created from a post type custom
  79. Creating a search results page from a custom post type in a plugin?
  80. Search custom post type result in same template page
  81. Search facility with directories
  82. Create Second Search Page Only for Custom Post Type
  83. custom search form for custom post
  84. Custom post url in search.php isn’t the correct rewrited url
  85. Conditional posts in WP_query for search
  86. Manually build WP_Query
  87. Extensive search filtering and results->PDF in the front-end
  88. Trying to modify custom search function in plugin to search postmeta table for keyword as well as posts table
  89. pre_get_posts not firing at all
  90. Custom post type blog pagination conflict
  91. Diffrent search templates for different post types
  92. Advanced search form with filters for custom taxonomies and custom fields
  93. Problem with custom post type search
  94. Searching for a single custom post type, buddypress
  95. admin search of pages returns custom post types
  96. Why does ‘exclude_from_search’ exclude a custom post type from WP_Query?
  97. Custom Field Search
  98. Custom post archive with search, is_search() is false?
  99. Why custom search engine only searches in post titles of custom posts?
  100. Meta_query question