The view settings dialog helps the user to sort, filter, or group data within a (master) list or a table. The dialog is triggered by icon buttons in the table toolbar.

Usage

Use the view settings dialog if:

• You need to allow the user to sort line items in a manageable list or table (up to about 20 columns).
• You need to offer custom filter settings in a manageable list or table (up to about 20 columns).
• You need to allow the user to group line items in a manageable list or table (up to about 20 columns).

Do not use the view settings dialog if:

• You have complex tables (more than about 20 columns).
• You need to rearrange columns within your table. Use the table personalization dialog instead.
• You need very specific sort, filter, or column sorting options within complex tables. Use the P13n dialog instead.

Button Placement

For sorting, filtering, and grouping, place the corresponding icon button for each function directly in the toolbar.

Do not place sort, filter, or group buttons in the footer toolbar if they refer to a table.

For detailed information about where to place the sort, filter, and group buttons, see Sort, Filter, Group (Generic) in the table toolbar article.

Sort, Group, and Filter a List

You can also offer the view setting features for a list.

Responsiveness

Behavior and Interaction

The sort, filter, and group features can all be applied to a table simultaneously.

Sort

The first tab in the view settings dialog is the sort feature. The tab shows a standard sort icon with two arrows – one pointing up, and one pointing down (see image above).

The sort dialog shows two groups of sort settings. The first group offers general Ascending and Descending sort options. The second group offers attributes that fit the use case, such as Product, Supplier, Weight, or Price. The attributes can match the table columns, but because a table column can also contain several data points, such as “Name” and “Surname”, the attributes allow an attribute to be shown for each data point.

The user select attributes using the radio buttons. Clicking or tapping OK closes the dialog and shows the table items in the selected order.

Filter

The second tab in the View Settings dialog is the filter feature. The tab shows a filter, which is the standard filter icon. The filter tab can offer a single filter selection list, a multi-filter selection list, or a category list. The category list provides an overview, and allows the user to drill down to detailed filter selection lists.

Filter Selection List – Single Selection

The dialog offers one single-selection list with radio buttons to select a filter. This list is useful for offering a list of preconfigured filters for a specific use, such as “Products with numbers ‘starting between 100 and 200’ with status ‘in stock’ and color ‘green’”.

Filter Selection List – Multi-Selection

You can also offer a filter selection list as a multi-selection list. In this case, the user can choose, for example, all “green” and “red” products.

Category List

The filter dialog shows a single list of general filter categories depending on the use case, like Price or Height. The user chooses a category by clicking or tapping the list item, such as Price. As this is a simple drilldown, these categories do not offer radio buttons. The dialog shows a list of filter settings in the Price category. Optional filters here, such as Less than 100, depend on the use case. The user chooses a filter setting by selecting one of the radio buttons offered in this list. Clicking or tapping OK closes the dialog and shows the table items filtered by the selected attribute. The info bar shows which filter has been set.

Free-Form Apps

You can also customize your own filter UIs, for example, to support date picking.

Filter Values

Filters can correspond to single values as well as groups, such as “<100.00 EUR”.

Filter Reset

The refresh button on the filter tab resets all filter settings.

Removing Filters

Be sure to offer an entry such as Not Filtered in a single-selection list. This enables users to remove a set filter.

Group

The third tab in the view settings dialog is the group feature. The tab shows an icon with lines in square brackets, which is the standard group icon.

The group dialog shows two groups of attributes. The first group offers a general Ascending or Descending order, which allows the user to select the order in which the defined groups appear. The second group offers attributes that fit the use case, such as Type or Supplier.

You can also offer an attribute like Price to group data in a table.

The user uses the radio buttons or selects checkboxes to choose attributes. Clicking or tapping OK closes the dialog and shows the table with items grouped below headers.

Naming Group Headers

Guidelines

For opening the dialog from a table toolbar, use different buttons for each function (sort, filter, group). With each button, open the View Settings dialog with just the corresponding tab.

If possible, give users the option not to filter or group. For sorting, this is only necessary if the use case calls for an unsorted list. In all three cases, show this option as the first entry in the list of criteria (remember to include the brackets):

• (Not Sorted)
• (Not Filtered)
• (Not Grouped)

Resources