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Filtering

Date ranges, multi-select, range sliders, global search, and per-user filtering.

Gravity Tables ships five filter primitives: per-user filtering, column filters, hard-coded filters, global search, and shortcode-driven sort.

filter_by_user#

The most common filter pattern. Each logged-in user sees only entries where created_by matches their user ID.

[gravity_table id="42" filter_by_user="true"]

This filter:

  • Runs at the database query layer (unauthorised users never receive the data)
  • Composes with role-based visibility (allowed_roles)
  • Defaults to “log in to see your submissions” for guests
  • Is overridable per-row by allow_user_switch for support staff

For the deep walkthrough, see the dedicated guide.

filters (column filter UI)#

Comma-separated list of columns that get filter controls in the toolbar. The widget chosen depends on the field type:

  • Text fields → contains-search input
  • Number fields → range slider (min/max)
  • Date fields → date-range picker
  • Dropdown / radio / checkbox → multi-select dropdown
  • Boolean → toggle button
[gravity_table id="42" filters="status,plan,created,amount"]

Filters are additive (AND-ed together) and respect every other parameter (per-user, role gates, exports).

filter (hard-coded)#

Pin a filter at render time. Useful for “Active only” pages or per-section views.

[gravity_table id="42" filter="status:active"]

Multiple values:

[gravity_table id="42" filter="status:active|trial"]

Multiple columns (comma between column rules):

[gravity_table id="42" filter="status:active,plan:pro|business"]

Hard-coded filters are not user-editable, they’re applied silently at the query layer.

Enabled by default. Searches across every visible column. To disable:

[gravity_table id="42" search="false"]

Search is debounced 300ms client-side, then runs as a server query. Respects the same per-user / role / hard-coded filter context.

Sort#

Initial sort direction:

[gravity_table id="42" sort="created:desc"]

Multi-column sort:

[gravity_table id="42" sort="status:asc,created:desc"]

Users can override by clicking column headers. Their sort persists in localStorage scoped to the table ID.

How filters interact#

Order of operations on every render:

  1. Role check (allowed_roles), denies entirely if user not in list
  2. Hard-coded filter (filter), narrows the dataset at query time
  3. Per-user filter (filter_by_user), narrows further to current user’s entries
  4. User-applied column filters, narrow even further
  5. Global search, final text match
  6. Sort, apply user’s or default sort
  7. Pagination, slice for the current page

Each step is a database-layer constraint, not a client-side filter. Unauthorized users never receive filtered-out rows in the response.

Performance#

Tested up to 50,000 entries on shared hosting. Pagination is server-side; only the current page’s rows are sent to the client. The query layer uses indexed lookups via wp_gf_entry_meta joins.

For larger datasets, the Top-N display setting (top_n_count / top_n_column, shipped 4.2.54) caps the result set server-side before pagination/search/export apply, useful for leaderboards. Virtual scrolling for 10,000+ visible rows is on the 4.3 roadmap. See Performance and scaling for the full set of mitigations.

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