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How the Sliders Block Chooses Competitions

How the Sliders block decides which competitions appear, why one can quietly disappear, and how to control the running order.

The short answer: the Sliders block does not show every competition you have created. For all the built-in slider styles, it automatically shows only the competitions you have flagged with the Add To Slider toggle, and only while each one is still live and publicly listed. There is no separate "pick which competitions" list on the block itself.

This page explains how a competition gets into the slider, why one can quietly drop out, the slider image gotcha, and how to set the running order.

How a competition gets into the slider

A competition only appears in the slider once you switch its Add To Slider toggle on.

1

Open the competition

In the admin panel, go to Competitions and open the competition you want to feature.

2

Turn on Add To Slider

Find the Add To Slider toggle and switch it on. The helper text reads "Will add the product to the slider section. Must have a slider image."

3

Upload a slider image

Add a dedicated slider image to the competition (a wide banner crop). See the gotcha below for why this matters.

4

Save

Save the competition. As long as it is live and listed, it now appears in the slider automatically.

The slider always shows the set of competitions that have Add To Slider switched on. You do not choose them block by block, so the same set appears wherever you place a built-in slider on your homepage.

Why a competition might not appear

Even with Add To Slider on, a competition is only shown while it is live and discoverable to the public. The slider checks five things automatically, and if any one of them is not met the competition silently drops out with no action needed from you.

  1. It must be Active. The competition's own Active toggle (described as "Will show product on homepage") has to be on. A draft with Active off never appears.

  2. It must have started. A competition with a future Start Date (Scheduler) is scheduled and stays out of the slider until that time. It then joins the slider automatically. See Schedule a Competition.

  3. It must not have ended. Once its end date and time pass, it is treated as ended and leaves the slider.

  4. It must not be sold out. Once every ticket is sold, it drops out because there is nothing left to sell.

  5. It must not be hidden. A hidden (VIP or secret) competition is deliberately kept out of all public listings, including the slider, even though it still works through its direct link.

This is the most common reason an operator asks "why has my competition vanished from the slider". Work through the five points above and one of them will usually explain it. The usual culprit is a forgotten Active toggle.

Hidden VIP Competitions

The slider image gotcha

The Add To Slider helper text warns "Must have a slider image", but a competition with the toggle on will still appear even without one. The slider falls back to the competition's main featured image.

The catch is shape, not presence. A slider image is a wide banner crop, whereas the featured image is usually a different shape, so a competition with the toggle on but no slider image tends to look stretched, cropped, or out of place rather than disappearing.

If a competition looks stretched or oddly cropped in the slider, the fix is almost always to upload a proper, wide slider image to that competition. For the correct dimensions, see the image size guide.

Setting the running order

Each Sliders block has a Collection Order setting with three options that control the sequence your slider competitions appear in.

  • Sort Order arranges them by the sort or position order you have given your competitions, so you stay in full control of the sequence.

  • Random Order shuffles them on each page load, which is useful when you want to give several competitions equal exposure.

  • Default Order uses the natural order the competitions come back in, without re-sorting.

To set this, open the Home page editor, click into your Sliders block, and choose an option from the Collection Order dropdown, then save.

Collection Order applies to the built-in slider styles only. The advanced Custom Twig slider style controls its own order, so this option does not appear for it.

The custom image option

Most slider styles are purely competition-driven: they show the competitions you flagged and nothing else. The Big Slider style (and the advanced Custom Twig style) are the exception. They also let you upload your own Featured Image and add overlay text (a title, value, subtitle and subvalue) for a custom hero panel. That is the "use your own custom image" half of the slider described on the homepage setup page.

If you want a fully bespoke slider, the Custom Twig style gives you complete control over the layout.

Custom Twig Slider

Quick checklist

If your slider is not behaving as expected, run through this:

  • A competition is missing: confirm Add To Slider is on, then check it is Active, has not ended, is not sold out, and is not hidden.

  • A competition looks stretched or cropped: upload a dedicated wide slider image to it.

  • You want a specific running order: set Collection Order to Sort Order and arrange your competitions; choose Random Order to rotate exposure evenly.

Once a competition is Active, within its run dates, has tickets available, is not hidden, and has Add To Slider on, it appears in the slider on its own. There is no separate "publish to slider" step beyond that.

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