The Personalised cards Paragraph | Configuration fields |
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Overview
The Personalised Cards paragraph displays content tailored to each logged-in user’s profile — showing them the news, resources, or events most relevant to them.
It works by matching:
Taxonomy terms that categorise content in the CMS (for example, “Themes” or “Areas of Interest”) against values stored in an associated CiviCRM custom field on the contact (for example, a field that records their interests or categories).
When these values align, the user will see content cards that match their personal profile.
This feature is ideal for membership platforms or organisations wanting to surface content that adapts dynamically to the user’s profile.
Before you start
Before adding this paragraph, make sure these two elements are set up correctly:
In CMS:
Use a Taxonomy Vocabulary to categorise your content (for example, a vocabulary called “Themes”).
Use this vocabulary to tag your content types (such as News, Resources, or Events).
In CiviCRM:
Create a Custom Field on the Contact to store the values you want to match against (for example, a user’s interests or categories).
This should be a Select or Multi-select field, and its options should match the Vocabulary terms exactly (same names/values).
For example, a field called “My Interests” should use exactly the same terms as the “Themes” vocabulary so the content relationship can be established.
Once both are configured, PlusCMS can connect the two systems to personalise content.
Once both are configured, PlusCMS can connect the two systems to personalise content.
How it works
When the Personalised Cards paragraph is added to a page:
The site compares each piece of content’s taxonomy terms with the values stored in the associated CiviCRM custom field on the logged-in user.
Cards matching those shared terms are displayed to that user.
If there aren’t enough matching cards to fill the configured number of rows, the remaining space is filled with recent (non-personalised) content.
Example:
A news article is tagged with the “Carbon Reduction” term from the “Themes” vocabulary. A user’s CiviCRM record includes “Carbon Reduction” in the custom field you’ve set up for matching (for example, “My Interests”). When that user visits a page containing the Personalised Cards paragraph, that article appears in their personalised list.
When choosing the Vocabulary to use on the component you will have access to all the vocabularies in the system.
The name of the Vocabulary is shown with the content type in brackets beside it to help you choose the correct item.
Testing setup
To confirm that your setup works correctly:
Categorise several pieces of content with taxonomy terms from your chosen vocabulary.
Pick a test user in CiviCRM and assign one or more of those same terms to the custom field you’re using for matching (for example, “My Interests”).
Log in as that user and visit the page with the Personalised Cards paragraph.
Confirm that matching content appears automatically.
If the custom field is available through an “Update My Details” form, you can test this directly on the front end:
Log in as your test user.
Visit the “Update My Details” form and add one or more values to the field (for example, selecting one or more interests).
Ensure at least one selected value matches a term used to categorise your content.
After the user saves their updated details and returns to the page, the Personalised Cards paragraph automatically refreshes to show matching content.
Tip: This same process applies for live users — their personalised content updates automatically when they change their preferences in the self-service form.
Fields
Field name | Type | Description |
Title | Text | Add a title to display above your listing |
Lead feature card | Dropdown | Choose a lead card type |
Style | Dropdown | Choose how many cards to display per row: 3 or 4 |
Number of rows | Text | Choose how many rows to display |
Content type | Dropdown | Choose the content types to filter the display |
Filter by | Dropdown | Choose what taxonomy term to filter the display |
Select content queue | Dropdown | Choose whether to display all content or use a custom content queue |
View all link title | Text | Choose what text to display for the “View all” link |
Best practice
Keep your taxonomy and CiviCRM field values in sync — identical naming is essential for matching to work.
Use short, clear term names (e.g. Climate Action rather than Areas relating to Climate Change).
Always test with a real user account to confirm the personalisation works as expected.