Introduction

Structured-Filter is a generic Web UI for building structured search or filter queries. With it, you can build structured queries like "Contacts where Firstname starts with 'A' and Birthday after 1/1/1980 and State in (CA, NY, FL)"...

It is a full jQuery UI widget, supporting various configurations and themes.

The project and a live demo are available at GitHub.

Background

Most enterprise web applications used to have an "advanced search" displayed as a form containing a list of fields with operators and values like the screenshot below (or this live demo).

Today, the same functionality is displayed in a more dynamic way and usually called "filter" rather than "advanced search".

This newer UX pattern needs more clicks to build queries but it takes less real-estate and doesn't force users to navigate to a different page. It is also more powerful as it allows to compose several conditions on the same field.

Model

The widget is configured with a list of fields to use in the search conditions.

Fields

Each field must have an ID, a type and a label.

id - unique identifier for the field
label - displayed field name
type - data type. Possible types of field: text, number, boolean, date, time, list

Example:

fields = [
    { type:"text", id:"lastname", label:"Lastname"},
    { type:"text", id:"firstname", label:"Firstname"},
    { type:"boolean", id:"active", label:"Is active"},
    { type:"number", id:"age", label:"Age"},
    { type:"date", id:"bday", label:"Birthday"},
	{type:"list", id:"category", label:"Category",
		list:[
			{id:'1', label:"Family"},
			{id:'2', label:"Friends"},
			{id:'3', label:"Business"},
			{id:'4', label:"Acquaintances"},
			{id:'5', label:"Other"}
		]
	}
];

Conditions

Queries are expressed as a set of conditions.

Each condition is defined by:

a field
an operator
one or several values

For each field, the possible operators are determined by its type.

boolean:

Yes (1)
No (0)

date:

on (eq)
not on (ne)
after (gt)
before (lt)
between (bw)
not between (nbw)
is empty (null)
is not empty (nn)

list:

any of (in)
equal (eq)

number:

= (eq)
!= (ne)
> (gt)
< (lt)
is empty (null)
is not empty (nn)

text:

equals (eq)
not equal (ne)
starts with (sw)
contains (ct)
doesn't contain (nct)
finishes with (fw)
is empty (null)
is not empty (nn)

time:

at (eq)
not at (ne)
after (gt)
before (lt)
between (bw)
not between (nbw)
is empty (null)
is not empty (nn)

Using the Code

First, load jQuery, jQuery-UI and the widget code:

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js" 
type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.min.js" 
type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="js/structured-filter.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
</script>

The widget requires a jQuery UI theme to be present, as well as its own included base CSS file (structured-filter.css). Here, we use the "ui-lightness" theme as an example:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" 
href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.12.1/themes/ui-lightness/jquery-ui.css">
<link href="css/structured-filter.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

Now, let's attach it to an existing <DIV> tag:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $("#myFilter").structFilter({
            fields: [
                {type:"text", id:"lastname", label:"Lastname"},
                {type:"text", id:"firstname", label:"Firstname"},
                {type:"boolean", id:"active", label:"Is active"},
                {type:"number", id:"age", label:"Age"},
                {type:"date", id:"bday", label:"Birthday"},
                {type:"lov", id:"category", label:"Category",
                    list:[
                        {id:'1', label:"Family"},
                        {id:'2', label:"Friends"},
                        {id:'3', label:"Business"},
                        {id:'4', label:"Acquaintances"},
                        {id:'5', label:"Other"}
                    ]
                }
            ]
        });
    });
</script>

<div style="width:100px;" id="myFilter"></div>

This will change the <DIV> into the widget.

Note: Structured-Filter doesn't require the full jQueryUI. You can use a custom build one with only the following: jquery.ui.core.js, jquery.ui.widget.js, jquery.ui.button.js and jquery.ui.datepicker.js.

Options

Structured-Filter provides several options to customize its behaviour:

buttonLabels (Boolean)

The labels of buttons used to manipulate filters. This option applies to the 3 buttons, "New filter", "Add filter"/"Update filter" and "Cancel" which use icons if the option is set to false.

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    buttonLabels: true
});

Defaults to *false*.

dateFormat (String)

The format for parsed and displayed dates. This attribute is one of the regionalisation attributes.
Common formats are: Default - "mm/dd/yy", ISO 8601 - "yy-mm-dd", Short - "d M, y", Medium - "d MM, y", Full - "DD, d MM, yy". For a full list of the possible formats, see the [jQuery formatDate function](http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Datepicker/formatDate).

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    dateFormat: "d M, y"
});

Defaults to *"mm/dd/yy"*.

fields (array)

The list of fields (as an array of objects with id, label and type) to participate in the query definition.
Possible types are: text, boolean, number, date, time, and list.

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    fields: [
        {type:"text", id:"lastname", label:"Lastname"},
        {type:"text", id:"firstname", label:"Firstname"},
        {type:"boolean", id:"active", label:"Is active"},
        {type:"number", id:"age", label:"Age"},
        {type:"date", id:"bday", label:"Birthday"},
        {type:"list", id:"category", label:"Category",
            list:[
                {id:'1', label:"Family"},
                {id:'2', label:"Friends"},
                {id:'3', label:"Business"},
                {id:'4', label:"Acquaintances"},
                {id:'5', label:"Other"}
            ]
        }
    ]
});

Defaults to *[ ]*.

highlight (Boolean)

A highlight animation performed on the last added or modified filter.

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    highlight: false
});

Defaults to *true*.

submitButton (Boolean)

Shows or hides the "Submit" button.

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    submitReady: true
});

Defaults to *false*.

submitReady (Boolean)

Provides hidden fields with the conditions' values to be submitted with the form (as an alternative to an AJAX call).

$("#myFilter").structFilter({
    submitReady: true
});

Defaults to *false*.

Methods

addCondition(data)

Adds a new filter condition.

$("#myFilter").structFilter("addCondition", {
    field:{
        label: 'Lastname',
        value: 'lastname'
    },
    operator:{
        label: 'starts with',
        value: 'sw'
    },
    value:{
        label: '"a"',
        value: 'a'
    }
});

clear()

Removes all search filters.

$("#myFilter").structFilter("clear");

length()

Gets the number of filters.

$("#myFilter").structFilter("length");

removeCondition(index)

Removes the condition of the specified index.

$("#myFilter").structFilter("removeCondition", 0);

val([data])

Gets or sets the filter definition (as an array of filters).

$("#myFilter").structFilter("val");

$("#myFilter").structFilter("val", data);

Sample value:

[
    {
        "field":{
            "label": "Lastname",
            "value": "Lastname"
        },
        "operator":{
            "label": "starts with",
            "value": "sw"
        },
        "value":{
            "label": "\"jo\"",
            "value": "jo"
        }
    }
]

valText()

Gets the filter definition (as a readable text string).

$("#myFilter").structFilter("valText");

Sample value:

Lastname starts with "jo"

valUrl()

Gets the filter definition (as a URL string).

$("#myFilter").structFilter("valUrl");

Sample value:

filters=1&field-0=Lastname&operator-0=sw&value-0=jo&label=Lastname%20starts%20with%20%22jo%22%0A

Events

change.search

This event is triggered when the list of search conditions is modified.

$("#myFilter").on("change.search", function(event){
    // do something
});

submit.search

This event is triggered when the submit button is clicked.

$("#myFilter").on("submit.search", function(event){
    // do something
});

Theming

Structured-Filter is as easily themeable as any jQuery UI widget, using one of the jQuery UI themes or your own custom theme made with Themeroller.

ui-lightness:

ui-darkness:

start:

redmond:

le-frog:

Beside jQuery UI themes, I also have an implementation for Bootstrap (and Backbone) as part of Evolutility metadata-driven set of Backbone views.

History

5^th October, 2014: Initial version

Structured-Filter - A jQuery UI Widget for Building Structured Queries