Clear Filters link

[WebCMS]

In Fluid View when many filters are checked in the Filters widget, what is the URL to clear all filters (from the session) with just one click?

Using /?forumId= and it works and clears all filters but it leaves that URI in the address bar.

Is there a more graceful way to clear filters?

[Marc Stridgen]

I have moved this to developer connection, as it would need a dev to answer the question on this one

[WebCMS]

At times, if we try to navigate to a non-existent forum ID, it surfs to that URL but there is no forum to display with that ID. But that wrong forum ID gets stored in the session with no way to get rid of it. Deleting it from the address bar or filtering with other sub forums will only keep the non-existent forum ID along with other parameters in the address bar. When the user unselects all the sub forums, the address bar still has the non-existent forum ID and the Topics page is blank because of the invalid filter and the non-tech-savvy user wouldn't know what s/he did wrong or how to fix it! This glitch could be addressed in the logic to not keep any non-existent forum IDs in the address bar or session.

Using /?forumId= clears all the filters for now but the "/?forumId=" string remains in the URI.

HTH

[Marc Stridgen]

There isnt so much a glitch here. While I understand we could certainly put something in place to prevent that occurance, there shouldnt actually be any way for a user to select a forum that doesnt exist

[WebCMS]

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

There isnt so much a glitch here. While I understand we could certainly put something in place to prevent that occurance, there shouldnt actually be any way for a user to select a forum that doesnt exist

A few situations -

1. User manipulated the URL to enter an invalid forum ID (users can be monkeys are runtime).
2. User filtered topics by a forum and in the meantime, we deleted the forum in the backend (rare).

In both the situations, the forum ID gets stored in the session and Forums page displays a blank Topic view because the filter doesn't match any existing forums. Selecting more checkboxes in the Filter widget display topics from those subforums but once all the subforums are unselected, the invalid forumId parameter still stays in the URL.

In the first instance, even a tech-savvy user cannot get rid of the forum ID (Eg: forumId=200) from the session to clear the invalid filter. Even deleting the invalid forumId parameter from the URL keeps restoring the invalid forum ID on page load and results in empty topic view (unless he knows to use "forumId=").

The link can also serve as a "Clear All Filters" link quickly with just one click instead of having to locate and unselect each checked filter checkbox manually.

Edited November 24, 2023 by WebCMS

[Marc Stridgen]

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention! I can confirm this should be further reviewed and I have logged an internal bug report for our development team to investigate and address as necessary, in a future maintenance release.

 

[WebCMS]

.

Edited November 25, 2023 by WebCMS

[WebCMS]

Noticed an issue with the emptying parameter "/?forumId="

After we navigate to the URL (Eg - "site.com/?forumId="), it clears all the filters and displays topics from all sub/forums. But if we click the Next pagination link, the previous filters get restored in the URL (previous filters still exist in the session!) and pagination links get affected due to topics getting filtered again. "/?forumId=" is not a viable solution.

An initialization parameter is required to -

• clear any invalid filters
• reset all filters with one click
• reduce the number of requests and partial page refreshes (clicking each selected checkbox to unselect them one at a time and refreshing the topic view for each checkbox click)

Edited November 25, 2023 by WebCMS

[WebCMS]

/?forumId=null works better with clearing filters and subsequent pagination.

However, on selecting any filter checkboxes again, the null parameter gets prefixed to filter params in the URI (no issues but the URI doesn’t look clean)

[Marc Stridgen]

Its been reported now, so Im sure our devs will have it covered 🙂 

[WebCMS]

I see on the 4.7.15 Release Notes:

• Fixed an issue with the fluid view, where invalid forum ids would remain "forever" in the address bar.

But if I surf to /?forumId= or /?forumId=0 or /?forumId=null, the address bar still has these invalid params. I was expecting by using one of these invalid params, to go to the site root / so any active filters are cleared out but it doesn't work as expected.

Is there a URL to use for clearing all the filters in FluidView mode so we could use the URL in a hyperlink to clear all filters with one click? I guess when an invalid param is used, if it redirects to site-root "/" clearing the invalid filter and also any active filters, it would resolve the issue gracefully so we could use it as a one-click shortcut to clear all filters (instead of having to locate all checked filter boxes to uncheck them one by one manually).

Please provide the URL to clear all filters... (there must exist one already)

Edited January 23 by WebCMS

[Marc Stridgen]

There isnt one to clear it out, however they shouldnt actually be causing issues any longer as of this release

[WebCMS]

On 1/24/2024 at 2:19 AM, Marc Stridgen said:

There isnt one to clear it out, however they shouldnt actually be causing issues any longer as of this release

It's doesn't work 100% as expected.

If we surf to the page using invalid params like -

• site.com/?forumId=
• site.com/?forumId=0
• site.com/?forumId=null

the param with invalid value stays in the address bar even if we refresh the browser. Instead, if you just clear the invalid value (because it serves no purpose) and redirect to just site.com/, it would resolve 2 issues -

1. clearing the invalid param/value
2. clearing any active filters

Hope you consider this suggestion as it would help users on forums where there are dozens of subforums in Fluid View and scrolling through them to clear all the selected filters manually (one at a time) would pose a bad UX. Once the above is implemented, we can place a hyperlink using an invalid param/value at our end to clear all filters with just one click.

Edited January 26 by WebCMS

[Marc Stridgen]

That would indeed be an addition as apposed to a bug. The bug was the filters not clearing even though you deselect. This is a browser action which you want to essentially redirect. In all honesty though, I would say don't create links to invalid locations.

[Nathan Explosion]

7 hours ago, WebCMS said:

Hope you consider this suggestion as it would help users on forums where there are dozens of subforums in Fluid View and scrolling through them to clear all the selected filters manually (one at a time)

I have no idea what way you have your forums structured so don't know what your filter list looks like - but if it was me that was scrolling and unticking each item then I'd get bored quickly and just go ahead and try clicking on the category header...

 

[WebCMS]

9 hours ago, Nathan Explosion said:

I have no idea what way you have your forums structured so don't know what your filter list looks like - but if it was me that was scrolling and unticking each item then I'd get bored quickly and just go ahead and try clicking on the category header...

 

Thanks. I've already added that tip to the Help doc on my site but people tend to not read help docs.

Will create a feature request that will also include a request to add a checkbox to each category header to select/unselect all subforums under them in the FluidView which would be more intuitive than a hidden feature as it is now.