About Creating Smart Filters Pages

Learn about creating smart filters pages.

Running the Create Application Wizard or Create Page Wizard is the easiest way to create a smart filters page. However, you can create smart filters page manually but the process involves multiple steps. To learn more, see Creating a Smart Filters Page Manually.

About Creating Smart Filters Pages with a Wizard

Create a smart filters page by running either the Create Application Wizard or Create Page Wizard.

Both the Create Application Wizard and Create Page Wizard support the creation of a smart filters page which contains a single search field at the top of the page with filters that display suggestion chips. Alternatively, you can add a smart filters region to an existing report in Page Designer. Each suggestion chip displays a single count for the specific suggestion values. The suggestion chip count only displays for filters that support counts, such as LOV-based filter types. Users can search, or click a suggestion chip to quickly filter the report. You choose if the report is a classic report or a cards report. If you create a smart filters page using the Create Application Wizard, you can also choose to include an update form.

Smart Filters, Breadcrumbs, and the Create Page Wizard

When adding a new smart filters page using the Create Page Wizard, breadcrumbs function a little differently. If breadcrumbs are disabled, the Smart Filters region is added to the Body container. However, if breadcrumbs are enabled, the Smart Filters region is added to the Breadcrumb container and a Breadcrumb displays at the top the page.

About Auto-Discovered Filters

When you build a smart filters page with either wizard, you can select a table or view on which to build the page. If you create the page based on a table, the filters are auto discovered using the Data Dictionary Cache. In contrast, if you build the page on a view or a SQL query, the facets (filters) are not auto-discovered. Instead, the wizard creates a filter region which only searches VARCHAR2 columns.

About the Data Dictionary Cache

The Data Dictionary Cache report displays statistics and a data analysis of schema tables and caches in a workspace. Both the Create Application Wizard and Create Page Wizard use the Data Dictionary Cache when creating new applications and pages. You can preview how the wizards will render facets (filters) on the Data Dictionary Cache page by viewing the Table Column Cache report. The wizard uses the first top five facet (filter) search score columns with score greater than or equal to 20.

If a table changes due to DDL or DML modifications, the Oracle APEX nightly job ORACLE_APEX_DICTIONARY_CACHE refreshes the Data Dictionary Cache. However, you can refresh the cache manually by navigating to the Data Dictionary Cache and clicking either Gather Statistics and Refresh Cache or Refresh Cache Only at the workspace or table-level.

See Also: Accessing the Data Dictionary Cache Report from Workspace Administration or Accessing the Data Dictionary Cache Report from Administration Services in Oracle APEX Administration Guide

Search Filter Types

Learn about supported smart filter types.

A smart filters page which contains a single search field at the top of the page with filters that display as suggestion chips.

You can specify a search filter type in Page Designer by selecting the filter in the Rendering tab and configuring the Identification, Type attribute in the Property Editor. Each filter has additional attributes that control behavior. To learn more about a specific attribute, select the attribute and click the Help tab in the central pane.

Tip: To see an example of manually adding a Search filter field, Checkbox Group filters, and a Range filter, see Creating a Smart Filters Page Manually.

App Builder supports the following search filter Types:

• Checkbox Group - Displays multiple values as check boxes, enabling the end user to select multiple values. A list of values is required for items displayed as check boxes. The values corresponding to the checked boxes are stored in a single colon-delimited string.

• Input Field - Displays a text field that enables the user to filter by text input. The comparison operator is either set by the developer or can be chosen by the end user. Includes support for filtering by date, timestamp (with local time zone). For DATE or TIMESTAMP values, use the YYYYMMDDHH24MISS canonical format.

• Radio Group - Displays multiple values as radio group options, enabling the end user to select a single value.

• Range - Displays an item with a built-in list of values selector. Each option represents a range of values, from a lower to an upper boundary. The facet supports single or multiple selection, and manual entry.

  For filtering and count computation, the lower boundary of a specified range is always treated inclusive, and the upper boundary is exclusive. Example LOV Syntax:

  • Less than 100:

    |100

  • Between 100 and 500 (exclusive):

    100|500

  • 500 and more:

    500|

  For a range with a Manual Input, filter by date, timestamp (with local time zone). For DATE or TIMESTAMP values, use the YYYYMMDDHH24MISS canonical format.

• Search - Displays a text field, enabling the end user to search the list entries of the filters in the Smart Filters region. A Smart Filters region supports one Search facet, which will always be at the top of the list of filters, regardless of its sequence.