Question

I’m displaying a table with multiple rows and columns. I’m using a JQUERY plugin called uiTableFilter which uses a text field input and filters (shows/hides) the table rows based on the input you provide. All you do is specify a column you want to filter on, and it will display only rows that have the text field input in that column. Simple and works fine.

I want to add a SECOND text input field that will help me narrow the results down even further. So, for instance if I had a PETS table and one column was petType and one was petColor — I could type in CAT into the first text field, to show ALL cats, and then in the 2nd text field, I could type black, and the resulting table would display only rows where BLACK CATS were found. Basically, a subset.

Here is the JQUERY I’m using:

   $("#typeFilter").live('keyup', function() {

    if ($(this).val().length > 2 || $(this).val().length == 0)
  {
                var newTable = $('#pets');
  $.uiTableFilter( theTable, this.value, "petType" );
  } 

   }) // end typefilter

   $("#colorFilter").live('keyup', function() {
    if ($(this).val().length > 2 || $(this).val().length == 0)
  {
  var newTable = $('#pets');
  $.uiTableFilter( newTable, this.value, "petColor" );

  } 

   }) // end colorfilter

Problem is, I can use one filter, and it will display the correct subset of table rows, but when I provide input for the other filter, it doesn’t seem to recognize the visible table rows that are remaining from the previous column, but instead it appears that it does an entirely new filtering of the original table. If 10 rows are returned after applying one filter, the 2nd filter should only apply to THOSE 10 rows. I’ve tried LIVE and BIND, but not working.

Can anyone shed some light on where I’m going wrong? Thanks!

Answer 1

The uiTableFilter plugin doesn’t support what you’re trying to do. A quick look at the source reveals this:

elems.each(function(){
    var elem = jQuery(this);
    jQuery.uiTableFilter.has_words(getText(elem), words, false)
        ? matches(elem)
        : noMatch(elem);
});

and that expands to (essentially) this:

elems.each(function(){
    var elem = jQuery(this);
    jQuery.uiTableFilter.has_words(getText(elem), words, false)
        ? elem.show()
        : elem.hide();
});

So all it does is spin through all the rows, .show() those that match, and .hide() those that don’t; uiTableSorter doesn’t pay attention to the current shown/hidden state of the rows and there’s no way to tell it to filter on multiple columns.

If you really need your desired functionality then you can modify the plugin’s behavior (the code is pretty small and simple) or just write your own. Here’s a stripped down and simplified version that supports multiple filters and is a more conventional jQuery plugin than uiTableFilter:

(function($) {
    $.fn.multiFilter = function(filters) {
        var $table = $(this);
        return $table.find('tbody > tr').each(function() {
            var tr = $(this);

            // Make it an array to avoid special cases later.
            if(!$.isArray(filters))
                filters = [ filters ];

            howMany = 0;
            for(i = 0, f = filters[0]; i < filters.length; f = filters[++i]) {
                var index = 0;
                $table.find('thead > tr > th').each(function(i) {
                    if($(this).text() == f.column) {
                        index = i;
                        return false;
                    }
                });
                var text = tr.find('td:eq(' + index + ')').text();
                if(text.toLowerCase().indexOf(f.word.toLowerCase()) != -1)
                    ++howMany;
            }
            if(howMany == filters.length)
                tr.show();
            else
                tr.hide();
        });
    };
})(jQuery);

I’ll leave error handling and performance as an exercise for the reader, this is just an illustrative example and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your learning. You could wire it up something like this:

$('#type').keyup(function() {
    $('#leeLooDallas').multiFilter({ column: 'petType', word: this.value });
});
$('#color').keyup(function() {
    $('#leeLooDallas').multiFilter([
        { column: 'petType',  word: $('#type').val() },
        { column: 'petColor', word: this.value       }
    ]);
});

And here’s a live example (which assumes that you’re going to enter something in “type” before “color”): http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/hdFDt/1/