Filtering entries lets a View show only the form entries that meet the criteria you set. For example, customers and employees both give feedback on a product in one form. A filter can leave out the customers' feedback and show only the employees' feedback in the View.

You can add several filters to one View. By default, a View only shows entries that meet all the filters. For example, with the filters shown here...

...your View only shows entries where the Last Name equals "Doe" and the First Name equals "Jane". To show entries that meet any one of the filters instead, use Or in a filter group.

Basic filtering

To create a basic filter, go to Formidable → Views and edit your View. In the View builder, click the Filter entries link.

To add another filter, click the Add filter link below the fields and customize it to fit your needs.

Comparison options

The View filter comparison field includes these options: equals, does not equal, is greater than, is less than, is greater than or equal to, is less than or equal to, contains, does not contain, starts with, and ends with.

• Contains: Shows entries where the field value contains a specific word or phrase.
• Does not contain: Shows entries where the field value does NOT contain a specific word or phrase.
• Starts with: Shows entries where the field value begins with the value you enter.
• Ends with: Shows entries where the field value ends with the value you enter.

To show only one entry for each value of a field, use a uniqueness rule.

Filter groups

Filter groups let you combine filters with And and Or. Use them when a View needs a mix of And and Or, such as Pottery or Painting workshops that take place in Austin.

Every View starts with one group. Inside a group, all the filters use the same relation:

• And: An entry must meet every filter in the group. This is the default.
• Or: An entry must meet at least one filter in the group.

To set up filter groups:

1. In the View builder, click Filter entries.
2. Add the first filter. Then click Add filter to add another filter to the same group.
3. In the dropdown at the start of the second filter, choose And or Or. The other filters in the group follow this choice.
4. To start another group, click Add new group, and add its filters.
5. In the dropdown between the groups, choose And or Or. With And, an entry must match every group. With Or, an entry must match at least one group.
   

   

6. Click Update at the bottom right of the Filter entries window. Then click Update at the top of the View builder to save the View.

In this example, the first group uses Or (Category equals Pottery, or Category equals Painting), and the second group has City equals Austin. The groups are joined with And, so the View shows Pottery and Painting workshops in Austin only.

To delete a group, hover over it and click the trash icon on its right.

Uniqueness rules

A uniqueness rule shows only one entry for each value of a field. For example, if several workshops have the same Instructor Email, a uniqueness rule on that field lists each instructor only once.

1. In the View builder, click Filter entries.
2. Under Uniqueness Rules, click Add unique rule.
3. Select the field that must be unique, and choose which entry to keep for each value:
   • get oldest entries: Shows the entry with the lowest entry ID for each value.
   • get newest entries: Shows the entry with the highest entry ID for each value.

   

4. Click Update at the bottom right of the Filter entries window. Then click Update at the top of the View builder to save the View.

Uniqueness rules apply to the entries left after your filter groups. For example, add the filter Category does not equal Pottery and a rule that keeps the oldest entry for each Instructor Email. The View then shows the oldest non-Pottery workshop for each instructor.

Oldest and newest go by entry ID, not by the entry creation date. Entries with an empty value in the rule's field are left out of the View.

Advanced filtering

Filter Views based on parameters in the URL, the current user, date ranges, and more. Learn more about how to check which shortcodes work in a filter value.

By Current User

To let your users see only their submitted entries, add a filter in your View's Filter entries window that says "User ID equals current_user". This only works if you have a User ID field in your form.

By Parameter

Filtering by a URL parameter is often used when creating advanced search forms. You can pass parameters to a View through the URL or through the View shortcode.

To filter entries based on a parameter, add a filter that says "Specific field equals [get param="param_name"]". By default, a filter is ignored if the parameter is not set or if the parameter value is blank.

To keep entries from showing when the parameter is not set, add the default option to your filter like this: [get param="param_name" default="none"].

By User ID

You can create a View where an administrator selects a user and sees only that user's entries. This is similar to filtering by parameter, because you need a separate search form.

1. Create a search form. This form has a single User ID field and redirects to the View on submit. Set the Redirect to URL to yoursite.com/your-page/?my-user=[x], where x is the User ID field ID.
2. Add this filter so that User ID fields display as dropdowns on the front end.
3. Create a View from the form whose entries you want to see.
4. Add a filter in the View builder that says "User ID equals [get param=my-user]".
   

   

5. Publish the View.

Now you can select a user in the User ID search form and view their entries for a specific form.

By User Meta

If you have the Formidable Forms add-on for WordPress User Registration, you can filter a View by user meta stored in a user's profile. For example, your form has an "Age" field, and your users have an "Age" user meta field stored in their profile. To only show results where the user's age matches the age stored in the entry, add this filter: Age equals [user_meta key=user_age].

Replace user_age with the key of the user meta from the user's profile.

By User Role

Depending on the user role, the View can display only the entries submitted by users with the same role. For example, Subscribers only see entries submitted by other Subscribers, and Editors only see entries submitted by other Editors. To set this up:

1. Add a hidden field in the form used for collecting entries for display.
2. Set the default value with the [user_role] shortcode.
   

   

3. In the View Builder → Filter entries window, add a filter like the following: Hidden field equals [user_role]
   

   

By Date

You can filter entries by the date they were created or updated. You can also filter entries by a date field in your form. When filtering by date, use any date string that the PHP strtotime() function accepts. These are commonly used date strings:

• NOW: Get the current date and time. You can use [date format='Y-m-d H:i:s'] as an alternative.
• 2016-01-31: Insert any date in the Y-m-d format.
• Next Thursday: Get the date for next Thursday.
• Last Monday: Get the date for last Monday.
• first day of this year: Get the first or last day of the year, month, or week. Use 'first' or 'last', along with 'year', 'month', or 'week'. PHP requires English for turning phrases like this into a date.
• +1 day: Get the date by going back or forward by day. Use + to go forward and - to go backward.
• +1 week: Get the date by going back or forward by week. Use + to go forward and - to go backward.
• +1 year: Get the date by going back or forward by year. Use + to go forward and - to go backward.
• +1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds: Get the date with any combination of weeks, days, hours, and seconds.
• [date format='Y']-01-01: Get the first day of the current year without English. It always gives January 1 of the current year in the Y-m-d format. The first day of the current month is [date format='Y-m']-01.

To only show upcoming events, add a filter that says "Date field is greater than NOW". To show entries created in the past week, add a filter that says "Entry creation date is greater than -1 week". If you filter by a specific date, you must use the "Y-m-d" date format in the View filter.

By Entry Status

If you have a mixture of draft entries and complete entries, you can filter the entries by their entry status. By default, a View includes complete entries and leaves out drafts and spam. You can filter by any of the following:

• Draft or complete entry: Includes both drafts and complete entries.
• Complete entry: Includes only complete entries.
• Draft: Includes only draft entries.
• Spam: Includes only entries marked as spam (Formidable Forms 7.0 and Formidable Views 5.13 or newer). Spam entries only show in a View that filters for them.

With the Form Abandonment add-on active, the list also has In Progress and Abandoned.

To display additional info in the View if the entry is a draft, use the [if is_draft] conditional.

Examples

Show entries for the upcoming week

Imagine you have a form that tracks appointments, and you want to show entries for the upcoming week. Add 2 filters: "Date field is greater than NOW" and "Date field is less than +1 week."

Show all entries submitted by due date

Say you have a form with a deadline, and you want to display all entries that were submitted or updated before it. Set up your filter like this: "Entry updated date is less than NOW."

Show all entries created for current year

To display all entries created in the current year, add a filter like this: "Entry creation date is greater than or equal to first day of January this year."

Filter by user group

This example filters by user meta to display the correct form entries. Say you have a form shared between 2 groups, and you want each group to see only its own entries. To set this up:

1. Each user needs a group name saved in a custom field on their user profile. If this isn't already saved, add it with a user registration or profile form.
2. Add a hidden field in the form used for collecting entries for display.
3. Set the default value to the group name from the user profile with the [user_meta] shortcode. For example, use [user_meta key=user_group].
   

   

4. In the View Builder → Filter entries window, add a filter like "Hidden field equals [user_meta key=user_group]". This only shows results where the user's group matches the group name stored in the entry.
   

   

Apply alphabetical filtering to a View

Alphabetical filtering lets users find entries that start with a specific letter. These steps set up alphabetical filtering for a View with the frm-letter-filter shortcode.

1. Assign a parameter. Choose the field you want to filter, and then assign a parameter. For example, if your field name is Business Name, use a parameter like this:

   [get param=bf]

2. Set up a filter in the View. Add a filter where the field starts with the parameter: Business Name starts with [get param=bf]
   

   

3. Insert shortcode for filtering. In the Before Content section, add the shortcode with the parameter. This adds the letter links that filter the field.

   [frm-letter-filter param=bf]

   

4. Publish the View. Once set up, publish your View. Users can click a letter to show only the entries that start with it.

Troubleshooting

If your entries are not being filtered correctly, check these:

• Check that there are entries that meet all filters.
• If you are filtering from parameters in a URL, check the URL. Do the parameters appear, and are they correct? If so, check if the parameters match the parameters set in your View filters.
• If you are searching a checkbox or multi-select dropdown field, are you searching for any values between 1 and 9? If so, the entries won't filter properly due to the serialization that occurs for checkbox and multi-select dropdown field values when saved to the database.

If you have reviewed the above steps and are not able to solve the problem, post in the help desk for further assistance.

No results on WPEngine

When many entries are included in the results, WPEngine servers may stop the query. When this happens, no results are returned and the View displays the 'No Entries' message.

To prevent this, add this in your wp-config.php:

define( 'WPE_GOVERNOR', false );

Related developer hooks

• Customize your View filters with PHP using the frm_where_filter hook or the frm_filter_where_val hook. We don't recommend custom PHP if you're not comfortable writing and debugging PHP.
• Check in a View whether the current user is the owner or creator of the entry with the frmpro_fields_replace_shortcodes hook.