How to create a filter to select any records

Chris RaffleI know you are the expert, do you by any chance have any guidance please and thank you

Christopher Hart,

Thanks for the compliment! From my understanding, there isn't a way to make a predefined filter open-ended where users can specify the filter criteria. You can create a filter that will show for all users though that mimics what you have shown in your screenshot. I created the following file:

./custom/Extension/modules/Emails/Ext/clients/base/filters/basic/filterEmailFrom.php

The file has the following contents:

<?php

$viewdefs['Emails']['base']['filter']['basic']['filters'][] = array(
    'id' => 'filterEmailFrom',
    'name' => 'Email From', // I found this has to be the filter name (not a label key) when editable is set to true
    'filter_definition' => array(
        array(
            'from_collection' => array(
                '$in' => array( // Setting this to an empty array achieves your desired affect of the filtered values for the field being empty
                ),
            ),
        ),
    ),
    'editable' => true, // When this is set to false, it will show in the predefined filter list for users but will not allow your users to enter their own filtered values
    'is_template' => false,
);

After creating the file, I performed a quick repair on the instance and cleared my browser cache to be able to see the new list view filter:

After selecting the filter, I could click the filter to edit the filter criteria like other user-defined filters:

I confirmed all users could see the filter and search on the criteria they wanted. The experience overall isn't the best though because if they try to delete or save the filter, they will receive an error popup. I believe this is because user-defined filters are typically stored in the filters table in the database. Since this filter exists in code, Sugar does not know how to handle the save or delete requests.

I hope this helps!

Chris