List Advanced Search on dropdown type fields

[rrwilson]

Hi there,

I had noticed some time ago, but completely forgot about it - when you want to use the advanced search field and filter on an element that is a dropdown, e.g. databasejoin, you cannot enter a freetext value.

You have to select a fixed value, as in what is shown in the form. This limits the user from searching for freetext that might be in common across fixed values in a "contain" search, for example.

Not a biggie - but thought I should highlight for the pipeline.

Cheers

RW

 

[troester]

filter on an element that is a dropdown

Hmm, I think this is what to expect if you set "Filter type"=dropdown

 

[rrwilson]

Hi there, LoL I know what you mean. But I was meaning on the filtering of a list where it is a dropdown:

The dropdown element itself should be fixed without any freetext per se, I completely agree. When advanced list searching, locking down the "equals" condition to values those dropdown possibilities makes 1000% sense. But where it is a "contains" condition it should be a different case to me.

Imagine you have a databasejoin dropdown category "Big stuff" and another value of that element called "Big things", and you want to filter on all categories that contain the freetext "big" for example. This would bring out both categories

 

[rrwilson]

Or wording it differently, there is no difference between equals and contains in the current set up.

Again, not a biggie, but a nice tweak if possible while in the guts for the next release

 

[cheesegrits]

Unfortunately, nothing to do with advanced filtering is a "tweak", in the sense of being simple. That filtering code is one of the most complex and difficult areas of code in Fabrik to work on, interconnected in a lot of ways - query string filtering, session filtering, element filtering, prefiltering, global filtering and advanced filtering are all involved here.

I'll bear it in mind next time I've got that code out on the slab, but it's not something I'm likely to just throw in for the next release.

-- hugh

 

[rrwilson]

Yeah, the 'easy' things never are.... usually a mass to unpick of crosscutting correct logic. And that's just everyday life

 

[cheesegrits]

LOL! Yup.

I'll have a look, and see if it is something simple. Who knows, it might be. But I seem to recall there's some interdependent logic in there that requires us to assume that if the filter is being presented as a dropdown, it's going to be an exact search.

-- hugh