Searching and filtering

A collection with twenty entries is easy to scan. One with two thousand is not. The Query panel on a collection's entries lets you search the whole collection in words, stack up conditions like "open on Sundays and within 10 km of the city centre", sort the result however you like, and see exactly how many entries match.

The same field settings that power this panel are what let people browsing your site search and narrow the collection for themselves.

Opening the query panel

1. Go to CMS then Collections and open a collection.
2. Click Query at the top of the entries page.

The panel opens above the table. Build what you want, click Run query, and the table below shows only the matching entries with a count beside the button. Click Reset to clear the conditions, or click Query again to close the panel and go back to the plain list.

Search

The Search box at the top runs a full-text search across every field you marked Searchable. Type a few words and press Enter (or click Run query).

This is word-aware rather than a plain letter match, so searching for a term finds entries whose text is about it, wherever in the entry that text sits. If nothing seems to match, check that the fields holding the words are actually marked searchable: only those are looked at.

Filters

Under Filters you build the precise conditions. Each condition is three parts: the field, the operator, and the value. TribeNest only offers operators that make sense for the field you picked.

• Text: is, is not, contains, starts with, is any of, is empty, is not empty.
• Number: equals (=), does not equal, greater than, at least, less than, at most, is between, is any of, is empty, is not empty.
• Date: on, on or after, on or before, after, before, is between, is empty, is not empty.
• Date & time: the same choices, worded as a moment rather than a day (at, at or after, at or before, after, before, is between).
• Select: is, is not, is any of, is empty, is not empty.
• Multi-select and tags: has, has any of, is empty, is not empty.
• Yes / No: is, is empty, is not empty.
• Reference: is any of, includes, is empty, is not empty. You pick the linked entries from a searchable list, by name.

Click Condition to add another line.

Match all, or match any

Every set of conditions has an AND / OR toggle at the top.

• AND means an entry has to satisfy every condition (match all of).
• OR means satisfying any one of them is enough (match any of).

Click Group to nest a second set inside the first, with its own toggle. That is how you build something like "practice area is Family Law, AND (city is Berlin OR city is Hamburg)". You can nest a few levels deep, which is more than almost any real question needs.

Remove a condition or a whole group with the ✕ beside it.

Sort

Under Sort, click Sort field to add a sort line, choose the field, and click the direction button to flip between Asc and Desc. Add more lines to break ties: sort by rating descending first, then by name ascending, and equally-rated entries come out alphabetically.

Two extra sort options appear when they apply:

• Relevance shows up once you have typed something in Search, and puts the best matches first.
• Distance shows up once you have given a location below, and puts the nearest entries first.

Search near a place

If your collection has a Location field, the panel gains a Near (location radius) row. Fill in a latitude, a longitude, and a radius in kilometres, and the results are limited to entries inside that circle. Leave the radius empty to rank by distance without cutting anything out.

This is what powers "near me" browsing on your site: a directory of venues, therapists, or shops that a visitor can narrow to their own area.

When a field is missing from the panel

If a field you expected is not in the field list, look for the Some fields can't be used in a query box at the bottom of the panel. It names each field that cannot be queried and the reason, so you are never left guessing.

The usual reasons are simple:

• The field is not marked Filterable or Sortable in its settings. Open Fields, edit the field, and turn the switch on.
• The field's type cannot be filtered at all. Rich text, media, groups, and lists hold content rather than values to compare, so they are searchable or displayable rather than filterable.
• The field is set to Private, which keeps it out of search, filters, and your public site entirely.

What visitors get

The three field switches are also the contract for your public site.

• Searchable fields are what a visitor's search box looks at.
• Filterable fields become the filters and facets a visitor can narrow by, with a count beside each option so they can see how many entries are behind it before clicking.
• Sortable fields are the orders a visitor can choose, plus best match when they have searched and nearest when they have given a location.

Only published entries in a public collection are ever visible this way. Drafts, archived entries, private collections, and private fields stay in your dashboard.

Getting a useful result faster

• Start with search, then add conditions. It is quicker to narrow a small pile than to guess the perfect filter first.
• Mark fewer fields searchable. Making everything searchable turns every query into a fuzzy one. The name, the summary, and the categories are usually enough.
• Filterable fields are the ones people choose between. A city, a price band, a practice area. Free text nobody would pick from a menu is better left as search.
• Use Reset rather than editing a broken query. Clearing and rebuilding two conditions is faster than untangling five.

What is next