Add Boolean logic to Advanced Search
It would be nice to be able to search the member database (or any database really) by specifying criteria such as:
Renewal_Due on or after Sept. 16,2008
AND
(Membership_Level = Gold OR Membership_Level = Silver)
Right now, I think, I can only choose to AND (i.e., Match ALL) all the criteria or OR (i.e., Match ANY) all the criteria -- no mixing AND's and OR's. This is okay for very simple reports with only two criteria, but often not what is needed for reports with more than 2 filter criteria.
Kim Skimmons
shared this idea
Old design proposal, not working on it yet and can be changed if we start working on it – https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0f9kMyQqlBsZ3FQOWRiMERRNkk/view?usp=sharing
52 comments
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Daniel Frankel
commented
Please enhance the advanced search capability to include compound queries (re (x and (y or z)). Also, add more of the SQL to the query language.
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Nancy Scanlan
commented
I agree, let us combined Saved Searches. Would allow us to do a Boolean search divided into smaller steps. Could be easier for staff who are not clear on how to set up a single complicated Boolean search
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John Barrett
commented
I like Michael's idea of combining Saved Searches. It is a simple and easy to understand approach to enhancing the search capabilities. Another benefit is that it also allows you to leverage existing saved searches to build new ones rather than building new ones from scratch. It also lets you make changes to many saves searches by modifying only one. The one downside I foresee with this approach would be that someone changes one Saved Search not realizing that they will be changing the results of another. However, I still like this approach.
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Michael Armata
commented
Alternatively, you could provide a way to create a Search based upon a combination of existing saved Searches.
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Liz
commented
There's a new topic that's similar to this one. It suggests that dropdowns should also allow multiple selected in search, which makes a lot of sense. E.g. If you have a dropdown for states, and you want to find members in set of specific states, you currently have to add a new criteria for every single state. https://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308932-wishlist/suggestions/15719559-filter-for-multiple-items-within-a-single-advanced
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
Advanced Search already works this way for multiple choice fields. Might that make it a fast implementation for radio button fields?
Although - what would that do to our existing saved searches? Would WA have to convert them all? Could it be done automatically?
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Liz
commented
I concur that a partial solution would be to make searches on radio button fields allow multiple selected. Combo AND/OR searches could be added later if that's more complicated to implement.
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Timothy Nott
commented
A UX tweak to the proposal I would suggest would be to collapse nested groups when they are not being edited so that the entire query can more easily be read at a high level. The indentation is a good indicator, but when everything is in an editable state, it is more difficult to read.
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Timothy Nott
commented
Ditto Walt
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Timothy Nott
commented
Good call
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
One simple and helpful addition to this would be to change the radio button search criteria to multiple choice.
For example, now the Membership Level criterion can be "is" or "is not" but only one level can be selected by the radio buttons.
This should be changed to multiple choice so that we can select any number of membership levels in that one criterion.
And the same for Record Status, Role, Member Status, etc.
Of course, if and when this feature is implemented then it would provide a (more complicated) way to do the same thing. But this would make some searches cleaner.
And if the full implementation isn't coming soon, maybe this could be done in the meantime?
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
This should be merged with "Add Boolean logic to Advanced Search" - https://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308932-wishlist/suggestions/8825653-add-boolean-logic-to-advanced-search .
I will copy my radio button search to that thread, for which there is already a design.
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Timothy Nott
commented
I second Walt's ask: "One simple and very helpful fix would be to change the radio button search criteria to multiple choice."
I would add the ability to create criteria groups so that we can mix AND/OR searches. Example:
I want to find contacts where (membership level = individual OR membership level = family) AND (membership status = active OR membership status = lapsed)
Bonus points for nested criteria groups
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
One simple and very helpful fix would be to change the radio button search criteria to multiple choice.
For example, now the Membership Level criterion can be "is" or "is not" but only one level can be selected by the radio buttons.
This should be changed to multiple choice so that we can select any number of membership levels in that one criterion.
And the same for Record Status, Role, Member Status, etc.
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not implemented. we will comment here when it's done
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Robert
commented
Has this been implemented yet and is it only available on certain plans?
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Liz
commented
The proposed solution to allow nested criteria would work well for our reporting needs.
I also agree with Walt who posted previously. In advanced search, radio button fields should be treated the same as check boxes. Although the member has to choose only one radio button, admins should be able to specify a single search criterion to select several alternatives (any of selected, all, or none). The proposed solution would allow a workaround by nesting and then listing that criteria multiple times, but is inefficient for this purpose.
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Nancy Scanlan
commented
That would definitely work much better for us.
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
This design solution looks good.
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Liz
commented
I recently started a trial and was surprised to find the limitations on the Advanced Search logic. To pull a mailing list, I'd like to have a saved search: Any of multiple, but not all, Member Levels AND my custom field Newsletter Preference set to Mail or Email & Mail. We also have a lot of reporting that we have to do, and I'm sure I will run into other instances where this is needed.
