Filters

Table of Content

• Filter area
• Multi-selection filters
  • Hierarchical content
  • Selection of parents without data in hierarchical filters
  • Forced parent selection
  • Display of code descriptions
  • Advanced selection popup
  • Data availability
  • Local search
  • Keyboard selection options
• Frequency and Time period filter
• Applied filters panel

Version history:
Improvements of the advanced selection window with June 13, 2024 Release .Stat Suite JS arc
Remove the display of total number of facet items as well as the ‘all’-selection information since June 13, 2024 Release .Stat Suite JS arc
Selection of parents without data in hierarchical filters and forced parent selection since December 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS yay
Facets values count numbers also count values with no data since December 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS yay
Change display of the ‘Applied filters’ area with April 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS unicorn
Bulk selection option is replaced by the ‘advanced selection popup’ feature since April 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS unicorn
Improved hierarchical filters with April 20, 2023 Release .Stat Suite JS unicorn
Display of code descriptions introduced in March 4, 2022 Release .Stat Suite JS 13.0.0
Checkboxes added to filter items since October 5, 2021 Release .Stat Suite JS 10.0.0
keyboard selection options introduced in (January 21, 2021 Release .Stat Suite JS 7.0.0)

General note: All content related to the filter area is localised. For more information, go to the general documentation about Languages.

Filter area

The left-hand side (right-hand in rtl mode) of the visualisation page shows a set of dimension filters that allow dynamically filtering the dimension values to be displayed in the preview table or chart, to be extracted through the download feature ‘Filtered data in tabular text (CSV)’ or to be applied in the auto-generated data query in ‘Developer API’ menu.

The current filters selection is summarised in the ‘Applied filters’ area, and displayed above the table/chart data representation.

A filter is created for each of the dimensions of the currently displayed dataflow based on data availability (see documentation), except if the dimension contains only one possible item or if it is configured to be hidden. In addition, the dimensions ‘Frequency’ and ‘Time Period’, when available, are automatically combined into a common ‘Frequency & Time Period’ filter (see the related documentation).

The order of the filters respects the order of the dimensions as defined in the underlying data structure definition (DSD), except the ‘Frequency & Time Period’ filter panel, which is displayed second after the ‘Applied filters’ panel.

The filter title contains the localised name of the dimension’s concept. In case the filter has at least one selected item, then the number of currently selected filter items (surrounded by a frame) is added to the title.

If the user has made selection(s) in the previous search result page, if a default selection is applied from an SDMX annotation (see documentation), or if the URL contains dimension selections, then these selections are automatically pre-applied in the filters.

Multi-selection filters

All filters are standardised multi-selection filters, except the ‘Frequency & Time Period’ filter. It means that the user can select multiple items per filter.

Each item of a filter is displayed with a checkbox on the left side in the filter list:

• when the item is not selected, the checkbox is empty;
• when the item is not selected and the mouse hovers it, the checkbox stays empty and the background is blue;
• when the item is selected, the checkbox is changed into a tick mark.

When a filter contains 8 items or more, then:

• a vertical scrollbar is added to the filter
• a local search (spotlight feature) box is displayed,
• an advanced selection button is displayed next to the local search box, which gives access to an advanced selection popup. A localised tooltip with the text “Use advanced selection modes” is displayed on mouse-over.

Any filter selection change will automatically trigger the update of the data view (table/chart/API query), and these changes will also be reflected in the ‘Applied filters’ panel.

Hierarchical content

In case of a hierarchy in the items, they are shown as ‘a tree’, which means that the filter will display all the items with indentations according to the item level in the tree. A blue arrow next to an item indicates that this item is a parent of child item(s). Clicking this blue arrow switches its up/down direction and the related child items will respectively be hidden or become visible. By default, the tree is fully expanded so that all the items of all tree levels are visible (through scrolling if needed).

If for a parent (at any level) there are no data available (according to the Actual ContentConstraint related to the Dataflow), then the parent item is marked in light grey, but it can still be selectable with certain conditions: see below. Still, the user can navigate to the children.

For more information on how advanced hierarchies can be applied (using the SDMX Hierarchical Codelist), see Advanced hierarchies.

Selection of parents without data in hierarchical filters

By default, if a parent at any level of a hierarchical codelist has no data available (according to the SDMX Actual ContentConstraint related to the Dataflow), then the parent item is marked in light grey and is not selectable. However, the following additional rules apply:

• When a parent item without data has at least one selected (grand-)child with data, then the user can (de)select this parent item (thus it is shown/hidden in the table view together with the (grand)child);
• When a parent item without data has no selected (grand-)children with data, then the parent item remains not selectable (to avoid ending up with an empty table view).

Selecting a parent without data will result in adding the parent item in the ‘Applied filters’ area. To deselect a parent without data its child(ren) need to be deselected first.

These rules also apply to the relevant advanced selection modes in the ‘Advanced selection popup’.

Forced parent selection

Through defining the SDMX ALWAYS_DISPLAY_PARENTS annotation for a dataflow, specific parent level(s) can be set to be automatically selected and displayed whenever a (grand)child with data is selected.

Example:
For a dataflow with a hierarchical dimension named “ANALYTICAL_CATEGORIES”, the data owner has defined the following forced selection of parents: ANALYTICAL_CATEGORIES=LEVEL1+LEVEL2+LEVEL3+LEVEL4.
Whenever a child of any parent in these levels is selected in the filter, then automatically all the parents in the specified levels will be selected too, whether there is data or not for those parents.
It will not be possible to deselect those parents unless all (grand)children are deselected first.

This behavior also applies to the relevant advanced selection modes in the ‘Advanced selection popup’.

Display of code descriptions

The localised descriptions of codes defined in a codelist of a dimension are displayed on mouse-over on the related filter items using a tooltip. These items are underlined with dots in order to inform the user of the availability of the description.

Advanced selection popup

Clicking the advanced selection modes button triggers the display of an advanced selection popup. It provides more advanced selection options especially for a longer or hierarchical list and refreshes the data view only once the new selection is validated by the user.
The popup always provides a local search (spotlight feature) box.

The user has different modes of selection:

• Single item
• Item and all items directly below
• Whole branch
• All items at the same level

Once the user clicked on one selection mode, all following filter selections apply the chosen selection mode.

Additional features in the popup propose

• to Expand all items or to Collapse all items keeping only the root item(s) when the items are hierarchical;
• to Select all items or to Delete all items

To apply the selection in the Filters area and refresh the data view, it is necessary to click on the Apply button, which closes the advanced selection popup.

Note that, for all advanced selection modes, when relevant and aligned with the rules described here, empty parents of child(ren) with data in a hierarchical filter can be (de)selected.

Data availability

In filters with hierarchical dimensions, parent values, for which no data exist, are still shown but marked specifically. For more information, see Data availability.

Local search

The local search (spotlight feature) helps to find specific items. Its hint text includes the number of filter items: “Search in all [XX] items below”.

Typing some characters in the local search box dynamically reduces the displayed items to the ones containing the given set of characters. If the local search term has no hit in any item then the list is empty.

Whenever the content of the local search box is changed, the items in hierarchical lists are fully expanded. When a local search terms has a hit in a child item, then all its above parent items will automatically be displayed, even if the search term was not found in these parent items.

Keyboard selection options

The keyboard’s Ctrl and Shift keys, as well as holding mouse click, can be used in the filters and in the advanced selection popup to ease multiple selections.

• Using the Shift key:
  If you first press Shift and select an item of a list, then selecting another item while still holding Shift will result in selecting all intermediate items (between those 2 selections) of the list. The same principle will apply in de-selection mode. As long as the ctrl key is held, the data table is not updated.
• Using the Ctrl key:
  If you first press Ctrl and select an item of a list, then selecting another item while still holding Ctrl will result in selecting this second item too. You can keep on selecting new items as long as Ctrl is held.
  As long as the ctrl key is held, the data table is not updated.
  Remark: The combination of ctrl and shift keys is not possible.
• Holding mouse click:
  If you click on one item and hold the mouse button without releasing it, then moving the mouse cursor down/up to another item of the same list will select both items and all intermediate ones.
  As long as the mouse button is held, the data table is not updated.

Note that these keyboard selection options are not compatible with the web content accessibility support.

Frequency and Time period filter

See here for details.

Applied filters panel

See here