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Filtering: Simple vs Advanced

Morgan Wynnes Updated by Morgan Wynnes

Read Time: 5 mins

In various areas within Sonar you will see two methods by which you can filter: simple and advanced.

Simple filters allow you to view one particular subset of items, as each filter is additional - meaning the search results will only display items that meet all of the filters applied. Therefore the more simple filters you apply, the further you narrow down that one subset you are viewing.

Advanced filters allow you to perform simple filter searches, but with multiple subsets through the use of groups. With groups, you can view results that meet some or all of the criteria based on the filters you have applied, depending on how you have set up the groups for your search. An overview of how to use each of these methods is provided below.

The fields that are available to filter by will differ depending on the area of Sonar that you are filtering within. For example, from the Accounts screen you are able to filter by fields such as account status, account type and activation date - however, you will not be able to filter by these same fields within the Inventory screen, as those fields will relate to inventory items instead.

Using Simple Filters

After ensuring the filter toggle is set to 'Simple', you can begin using simple filters by entering text into the search bar or selecting an option from the dropdown lists available for the entity fields. Each selection will further narrow down the subset of items you are viewing.

Example

Let's say we need to look up a particular account and we cannot remember the full name or ID of the account, but we do remember that the name the account is under contains "Bill". We also know that this was an active residential account, and part of the Westlake Wireless company. Using the information we do have, we can use simple filters to help us find the account we are looking for.

By typing "Bill" into the search bar, selecting "Active" as the Account Status, "Residential" as the Account Type, and "Westlake Wireless" as the Company, we have now narrowed down our results to 4 accounts.

Using Advanced Filters

To begin using advanced filters, you first need to make sure that the filter toggle is set to "Advanced". Filters are set up within a group and you have the ability to create multiple groups in order to expand your search. Any filters that are within the same group will be treated in the same way as a simple filter search - they are additional and will only result in items that meet all of the filters applied. When using multiple groups, you can broaden your search by looking at more than one subset of items.

The filters and groups that you apply when using the advanced filter search will be saved, even when navigating to different areas in Sonar, until you remove them.

Using Filters

To begin adding filters to a group, you can start by making your first selection with the entity field name dropdown that is already presented to you (it will have an "A" beside it to indicate the first filter in the group). Once you select an entity field from the list, another field will appear where you can select the operation you wish to use - based on this selection, the appropriate field will appear where you can specify the particular value you are looking for. Additional filters can be added within the same group by clicking the "+ Filter" button within the group panel.

Once you have added filters to a group, you will have the options to "Cancel" or "Apply", as can be seen in the top row of the group below. To remove a filter, click "Cancel" and then click the "X" for that filter row. To apply the filter, simply click "Apply" - once you have clicked this, the filter will appear like the bottom row in the group below and your search results will be updated. If you need to edit the filter, you can do so by clicking on the filter's associated pencil icon.

Example

We will use the same example as the one from the simple filters section above, where we are looking for an account that contains the name "Bill", is active status, residential type, and part of the company Westlake Wireless.

To start, we create our first filter for the name "Bill", and then add each additional filter using the "+ Filter" button inside of the group.

Once we click "Apply" for each of the filters we just set up, our search results will update to only show accounts that meet all of the criteria we just defined.

Using Groups

With groups, you can search for items that meet some or all of the criteria that you specify and can therefore perform a broader search. You can add a new group by clicking the "+ Group" button, and can add as many groups as needed. To remove a group, you must first remove all filters within the group, and can then click the "X" at the top left corner of the group to delete it.

If you need to move a filter to a different group, you can do so by dragging the filter row and dropping it in the desired group.
Example

Continuing from our last 2 examples, we will set up our filters in our first group to look for accounts that contain the name "Bill", are active status, residential type, and associated with the Westlake Wireless company. However, let's say that at the same time, we also want to view all accounts that meet the same criteria but are lead status and part of the Go Fiber company instead.

Once we apply our filters in both groups, we can now view all results that meet the criteria specified in either group 1 or group 2.

How did we do?

Consuming the Sonar API

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