Awesome Table: Preset filters in URL

Post date: Dec 19, 2014 6:7:46 PM

Using filters in Awesome Table to quickly drill down the displayed data is great. But a lot of users have asked for ways to load a table with some filters already selected (to provide direct links to the most interesting data for specific users) so our latest improvement allows you to set a filtered view directly from the URL of the page.

Let's take an example

We will take a People Directory as an example throughout this post.

The URL is built by adding the option filter[name of the column in the spreadsheet]=[comma separated filter settings]

Example :

https://sites.google.com/site/scriptsexamples/available-web-apps/awesome-tables/people-directory?filterF=France,Spain

This will only display rows with 'France' or 'Spain' in column F (assuming a CategoryFilter was used on this column).

Detailed settings for each filter

It works for all filters, but parameters are a bit different.

• StringFilter

One parameter : it's the content of the string field.

Filtering for 'FOURNIER' in the Name filter of the sample people directory : /awesome-tables/people-directory?filterB=FOURNIER

• • CategoryFilter / csvFilter

Comma separated values

As above, filtering for people living in France or Spain : /awesome-tables/people-directory?filterF=France,Spain

• Number filter

Two values : start and end of the range

Filtering for weight between 50 and 70 kg : /awesome-tables/people-directory?filterK=50,70

• DateFilter

Two parameters : start and end of the range

In this case, it's a little tricky, the date need to converted to a number. You can use this site to convert dates to numbers.

People born between 01/01/1975 and 01/01/1980 : /awesome-tables/people-directory?filterL=157762800000,315529200000

Combining filters

Of course, you can use multiple filters at once, giving you the maximum control on your Awesome Table URL links.

For example, here's a custom link to filter on people living in England and weighting between 70 and 90 kg:

/awesome-tables/people-directory?filterF=England&filterK=70,90

Advanced stuff

• Some of you may have thought of data non URL-friendly, as text containing '/'. This is also taken in account, as each parameters are passed through the decodeURIComponent() JavaScript function. To be sure of using correctly formatted parameters, use encodeURIComponent() on each of them. This is all the more important when the parameters are unknown text value.

  • To link data containing a space on legacy Google Site, like 'Google Apps' on the csvfilter Skills & Expertise, replace the spaces by %26%2332;

  • /awesome-tables/people-directory?filterH=Google%26%2332;Apps

  • Note: This is necessary because Google Site replace spaces by '+' in URLs.