Search, filter, and group records

Typing into the box and pressing a field name is the same thing as asking for contains: every record holding those characters in that field is kept. Expanding a line with the ▸ arrow and picking a value instead asks for is exactly, which is what you want when two customers have similar names.

Each facet carries a small icon showing which of the three jobs it belongs to — a funnel for a filter, a stack for a group, a star for a favourite — and the values inside it are joined by or. Two values in one facet widen the result; two separate facets narrow it. That single rule explains most of the surprises people report.

A facet you created from the Custom Filter… window is editable: hover it and a pencil appears over its label, and clicking it re-opens the rule editor on that facet so you can adjust the condition instead of deleting and rebuilding it.

In a list view only, a group-by facet has a second trick: hovering it shows a sort symbol, and clicking the facet label toggles the groups between most-populated-first and least-populated-first. In kanban, graph and pivot views the same click does nothing, because the option is only offered on lists.

Open the drop-down with the ▾ button at the end of the search bar. Three columns appear: Filters on one side, Group By in the middle, Favorites on the other. The keyboard shortcut Shift + Q opens and closes it.

Preconfigured filters

The Filters column lists conditions the screen was built with — on the Sales Analysis report they are Quotations, Sales Orders, Order Date, To Invoice and Fully Invoiced. Tick as many as you need.

Horizontal lines split the list into groups, and the lines matter. Two filters from the same group are combined with or, so ticking both Quotations and Sales Orders shows more records than either alone. Filters from different groups are combined with and, so adding a date on top of a status shows fewer.

Date filters

A filter on a date field opens into a panel of months, then quarters Q1 to Q4, then years. The selection is read as a grid: every year you tick is crossed with every month or quarter you tick, and the resulting periods are added together.

Custom filters

When no preconfigured filter says what you mean, click Custom Filter… at the bottom of the Filters column. It also appears at the bottom of the search box's own drop-down while you are typing, so you never have to leave the keyboard.

A window titled Custom Filter opens on a single rule reading Match any of the following rules:. The word any is a small drop-down: switch it to all and every rule must be true instead of just one. Two more values, none and not all, appear once you start negating conditions.

A rule is three boxes read left to right: the field, the operator, and the value. The operators on offer depend on the field's type, and so does the value box — it becomes a drop-down, a number box, a date picker, a yes/no switch, or nothing at all for operators such as is set. Fields that lead somewhere else, such as a customer's country, carry a ▸ arrow you expand to reach the fields on the other record.

Two icons sit at the end of each rule. On a top-level rule the first is a branch symbol, tooltip Add nested rule, which starts a sub-group with its own any / all switch; inside a sub-group the same position becomes a plus, tooltip Add rule. The second icon is a red bin, tooltip Delete rule, and deleting a branch deletes everything inside it. The New Rule link underneath adds a plain rule at the current level.

If the model can hold archived records, a switch labelled Include archived appears in the window; models with no archive have no switch. Click Search to apply, or Discard to abandon. Search stays greyed out until the rules actually say something.

The Group By column clusters the records instead of removing them. Pick Salesperson and the list, board or report reorganises itself by salesperson without dropping a single record.

Grouping stacks. The first group you pick is the outer division, the second splits each of those blocks again, and so on. Filters and groups work together, so you can narrow first and then group what is left.

A date field offers five granularities — Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day — with Month as the default. You may tick more than one, which nests them.

Any other groupable field on the record can be used through the Custom Group drop-down at the bottom of the column. It is a list of field names; choosing one adds the group immediately. Fields that cannot be grouped — free text, most computed values, and the record id — are simply not in the list.

A favourite stores the whole state of the bar — every filter, every group, the sort order — under a name, so you can bring it back with one click.

Saving one

Set the bar up the way you want it, open the drop-down and click Save current search in the Favorites column. It expands into a small panel.

The name box is pre-filled with the screen's own title; replace it with something you will recognise later. Tick Default filter — its tooltip reads Use this filter by default when opening this view — if this should be how the screen opens for you every time. Then click Save, or press Enter.

Sharing one

A favourite is private to you unless you say otherwise, and the sharing setting lives on a form rather than in the drop-down. Click Edit instead of Save and WindoorERP saves the favourite and then opens it as a record.

On that form, fill Shared with with the colleagues who should see it. The box is a list of users and its placeholder reads All users — that is not decoration: leaving it empty shares the favourite with everybody, it does not keep it private. To share an existing favourite, hover its name in the Favorites column and click the pencil, Edit favorite.

Living with them

Saved searches are listed under Favorites in the drop-down: yours first, then the ones other people shared, and if there are many shared ones a More… link reveals the rest. Applying one does not lock the screen — you can add more filters and groups on top of it.

The favourite form itself carries four fields you can change: Filter Name, Shared with, Default Filter, and Domain, which is the stored condition shown as an editable rule tree. With developer mode on, two more appear — Context, which holds the saved grouping, and Sort, which holds the saved ordering. A favourite that has been archived shows an Archived ribbon across the corner of the form.

With developer mode active, Settings › Technical › User-defined Filters lists every favourite in the database, whoever made it, and lets you archive or delete them in bulk.

A few screens carry a second, quieter control: a panel down the side listing categories and tick-boxes, which filters the screen as you click through it. On this database you will meet it on Product Variants, Journal Items, Reordering Rules, Employees and Technical Tasks.

The panel collapses to a narrow strip that reports what is currently chosen, or the word All when nothing is. Click the strip to open it again. What it applies is an ordinary filter — it simply does not appear as a facet in the bar, which is worth remembering when a count does not add up.

A record you know exists is not found. The box only searches the fields the screen offers, and the field you typed against may not be one of them. Type the term, then read the drop-down: if the field you wanted is not listed, it is not searchable here — use Custom Filter… instead, where every field on the record is available.

Adding a filter returned more records, not fewer. The two filters sit in the same group, so they combine with or. Look at the horizontal dividers in the Filters column: within one block the conditions widen, across blocks they narrow.

Ticking a month cleared the whole date filter. You un-ticked the last year. Months and quarters cannot be computed without one, so WindoorERP clears them together. Tick the year again, then the month.

The Search button in the Custom Filter window is greyed out. The condition is still empty — the header will be reading Match all records. Fill in a value, or add a rule.

“Domain is invalid. Please correct it”. The condition could not be evaluated against the record. Almost always it is a hand-edited # Code editor box in developer mode; switch the box back to the rule editor and rebuild the rule there.

“This domain is not supported.” A stored condition — usually on an old favourite — cannot be drawn as rules. Reset domain clears it so you can build a fresh one; the old text is lost, so copy it first if you need it.

“A name for your favorite filter is required.” You cleared the name box before clicking Save. Type a name and save again.

A colleague sees different records on the same screen. Compare the two search bars first. If they match, one of you has a favourite marked Default filter that is applied silently on opening, and the other does not.

A group you expected is missing. Grouping only creates a block where records exist. Nothing in that field means the records fall into the None group; nothing in that period means a chart simply skips it.

The screen is filtered but the bar looks empty. Check the side panel, if the screen has one. It filters exactly like the bar but does not write a facet into it.