Search, filter, and sort

When browsing isn't enough, Uniform's content listings let you narrow down to the items you need. Keyword search, filter conditions, sorting, and list views are shared across compositions, entries, assets, and pattern listings.

These controls live on one search and filter bar above the list. Conditions sit on the bar as pills you add, edit, or remove in place.

This page describes the shared behavior, which criteria each listing offers, and which field and parameter types you can filter on. To search and filter from code, see search and filter with the API and SDK.

Where the bar is available#

The search and filter bar is available on:

• Entries
• Compositions
• Entry patterns
• Component patterns
• Composition patterns
• Assets (Uniform Asset Library), including when you pick an asset from an asset parameter
• Reference pickers, when you select an existing entry

It is not available on content type listings, component definition listings, or redirects.

The search and filter bar#

The bar holds keyword search, locale, filter conditions, sort, and the view selector. Locale only appears on listings with localized content, and reference pickers have no view selector.

The search and filter bar above the entries listing, with its default empty conditions.

Search, filter, sort, and locale state is reflected in the URL, so you can bookmark or share a filtered listing. If it's a query you come back to, save it as a named custom view instead.

Keyword search#

Select the search button on the left of the bar, or press Command-Shift-F (macOS) or Ctrl-Shift-F (Windows).

Type to run a full-text search across your content. Search matches an item's name, slug, and text-based field values, such as text, rich text, and select values. Search tolerates small typos. Asset search matches only the title and description.

While a search term is active:

• Results are ordered by relevance, best matches first.
• The sort control is unavailable until you clear the search.
• Clearing the search restores your previous sort.

A keyword search on the entries listing. The expanded field overlays the filter pills, and sort is locked to relevance.

Locale selection and filtering#

Listings that hold localized content (entries, compositions, and their patterns) have a Show locale control. It defaults to Any, which means results can be in any locale.

Choosing a display locale from the Show locale control.

Show locale sets the locale that results and filter conditions are resolved against. It doesn't filter by which locales are enabled on an item.

To match items that have specific locales enabled, add an Enabled locale filter condition. While that filter is active, Show locale shows Delegated and can't be changed, because the Enabled locale filter takes precedence. Remove that filter to choose a display locale again.

In a reference picker, the locale is fixed to the locale you're inserting into.

Filtering#

Each condition is a pill with three parts: the field (criteria), the operator, and (for most operators) a value. Conditions are combined with and, so an item must match every condition to appear.

Select a part of a pill to change it, or remove the pill to drop that condition. Operators such as is empty take no value. There's no limit on the number of conditions. The bar scrolls when they don't fit.

Default conditions#

Listings start with empty conditions for the most common filters, which don't narrow the list until you pick a value.

A default only appears when its criterion exists on that listing. Category is dropped in projects that have no categories, and Publish status is dropped on listings that don't offer publish options. A condition you've given a value to is always kept, even if its criterion becomes unavailable.

You can remove any default condition. If you leave the listing to open an item and come back, the bar keeps what you removed. Navigating elsewhere in the project restores the defaults for that listing.

Add a condition#

Select Add to choose a filter. Filters are grouped under System and Metadata. Once the list is narrowed to a single type, that type's fields appear in their own group.

Some criteria, such as type or workflow, can only be used once on the bar.

The Add menu groups filters under System and Metadata.

Filter criteria by listing#

Each listing offers the criteria that make sense for its content:

A criterion only appears when your project uses it:

• Enabled locale needs at least one locale.
• Workflow and Workflow stage need at least one workflow.
• Category needs at least one category.

The type-specific group appears once a Type is condition names exactly one type. See filtering by field value needs a single type.

Filter operators#

The operators available for a condition depend on the kind of field or property you're filtering on.

Selecting the operator segment of a condition shows the operators for that field's type.

is all of matches items that carry every value you pick, where is any of matches items that carry at least one.

Filtering by field value needs a single type#

To use custom fields and parameters, limit the list to a single content type, composition type, component type, or asset type. Once a Type is condition names one type, the Add menu lists that type's fields or parameters in their own group.

With a single content type selected, that type's fields appear in the Add menu.

You can't filter or sort by fields across multiple types, even if those types share the same field settings. If you change the type condition, conditions on fields the new type doesn't have are removed.

Supported field and parameter types#

These field types can be used in filter conditions on entries and in parameter conditions on compositions and patterns:

Rich text has no is or is not, because matching an entire formatted document exactly isn't useful.

In the search and filter bar, a reference condition matches on the referenced entry itself. The API and SDK can also filter on the referenced entry's name, slug, type, and publish status.

Assets have a fixed set of filterable properties instead of custom fields. See filter criteria by listing.

Unsupported field and parameter types#

These field types can't be used in filter conditions:

• Asset and Link. The API and SDK can filter on them.
• Blocks
• Enrichment
• Image URL
• JSON data

Search and filter on connected external data#

When entries or entry patterns connect to external data sources through dynamic tokens, keyword search and filters also apply to the connected data.

Uniform indexes only the last resolved values used in the entry. It refreshes them based on the cache settings of the data resource's data type.

More menu#

When at least one condition is on the bar, the More menu () has actions for the whole bar:

• View all editions: on listings that support editions. See search and filter editions.
• Create new view: saves the current search, conditions, and sort as a named custom view.
• Reset view: only while a custom view is open. Restores that view's saved query, discarding any changes you've made since opening it.
• Remove all filters: clears the conditions you added and restores that listing's empty defaults (for example Content type and Publish status with no value). It doesn't clear keyword search, locale, sort, or list view, and it doesn't return you to a saved view.

The More menu collects actions that apply to the whole bar.

You can remove every condition, including the defaults.

Sorting#

Select Sort to choose a field and a direction, ascending (A to Z, oldest to newest) or descending.

You can sort by shared properties: date modified, date created, name, slug, and the users who created or modified an item. When a listing is filtered to a single type, you can also sort by that type's fields or parameters. Rich text, multi-select, and reference fields can't be sorted.

Assets sort by Title, Date modified, and Date created. Once a single asset type is selected, you can also sort by File size, and for images by Width (px) and Height (px).

You sort by one field at a time. By default, listings are sorted by date modified, newest first. While a keyword search is active, results are sorted by relevance and the sort button is unavailable until you clear the search.

List views#

Listings offer up to three views. Switch between them with the view selector on the right of the bar. Your choice is remembered per project and listing, in the browser you're using.

• List view shows each item's key metadata in columns. Use it to scan long listings.
• Large list view adds a thumbnail to each row.
• Grid view shows items as cards with large thumbnails. Where grid is available, it's the default view.

Not every listing offers every view:

No matching results#

If the current search and filters match nothing, a message offers to clear the search, the filters, or both.

When filters match nothing, the listing offers a one-click way to clear them.

Clearing restores the listing's default empty conditions.

Entity-specific behavior#

Some listings extend these shared capabilities with behavior specific to their content:

• Entries: managing entries covers the entries listing and its actions.
• Assets: filtering by label and filtering by asset type, plus type-specific properties such as file size and dimensions. See the asset library.
• Editions: how search and filter behave across editions. View all editions is in the bar's More menu.

Search and filter through the API or SDK#

The same search index powers the Uniform APIs. You can filter entries, compositions, patterns, and assets from code. The API also filters on asset and link fields, which the bar doesn't offer. See search and filter with the API and SDK.

Limitations#

The search and filter bar can't:

• Combine conditions with or, or group them into an advanced filter. Every condition on the bar is combined with and.
• Filter or sort by custom fields or parameters across more than one type at a time.
• Filter compositions and patterns by the parameters of components placed in their slots. Parameter conditions match the root component only.
• Filter by fields inside blocks.
• Filter by the custom fields of a referenced entry, or through nested references.
• Match text beyond the first 10,000 characters of a rich text field.
• Bookmark a specific entry, composition, or asset. Use favorites.
• Remember items you recently opened. Use My recents.
• Change which columns appear in the list.

Related#