M-Files is a 2025 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Document Management
️️➡️Download the report!

Options
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 10 subscribers
  • Views 804 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

How can I filter out template files in views?

Former Member
Former Member
I have some template files I want to hide from the views but I can't figure out how to do this. There are four possible operators when I define the filter in the views. I have tried all the different combinations but none of them are filtering out the templates. When I tried with these three files:

File 1: "Is template" is "Yes"
File 2: "Is template" is "No"
File 3: "Is template" is not a property of the document

this was the result:

Is template = Yes: 1
Is template = No: 2
Is template != Yes: 2
Is template != No: 1
Is template is empty: (none)
Is template is not empty: 1 and 2

None of these views displayed the File 3.

Is there another way to hide the template files which I have not thought of?
Parents
  • Unfortunately, searching for documents that are not templates cannot be performed perfectly. This is because each Boolean property can relate to a document in one of these four ways:

    1) property is not specified i.e. it is totally missing
    2) property is specified but its value is empty
    3) property is specified and its value is Yes
    4) property is specified and its value is No

    Not being a template is specified using condition "not specified" or "specified but empty" or "specified and value is No".

    Regarding this need M-Files should be improved at least in two ways, denoted by #1 and #2 below.

    #1: M-Files should provide a way to search for documents that have the property as empty or don't have the property. For example, a new search operator such as "is empty or missing" could be added for this. Alternatively, empty and missing could be combined to mean the same equal thing that the property is missing. When compared to the current case with Boolean properties a reduction from four alternatives to three is noticed. I think this is the perferred choice for simplicity. Does anybody need to separate empty and missing or have you even thought about this?

    #2: M-Files should provide a data type such as Flag that is either missing or present with value Yes. When compared to the current case with Boolean properties a reduction from four alternatives to two is noticed. With this data type, template documents and non-template documents can be specified more naturally, and searching both of these cases is easy.

    Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
Reply
  • Unfortunately, searching for documents that are not templates cannot be performed perfectly. This is because each Boolean property can relate to a document in one of these four ways:

    1) property is not specified i.e. it is totally missing
    2) property is specified but its value is empty
    3) property is specified and its value is Yes
    4) property is specified and its value is No

    Not being a template is specified using condition "not specified" or "specified but empty" or "specified and value is No".

    Regarding this need M-Files should be improved at least in two ways, denoted by #1 and #2 below.

    #1: M-Files should provide a way to search for documents that have the property as empty or don't have the property. For example, a new search operator such as "is empty or missing" could be added for this. Alternatively, empty and missing could be combined to mean the same equal thing that the property is missing. When compared to the current case with Boolean properties a reduction from four alternatives to three is noticed. I think this is the perferred choice for simplicity. Does anybody need to separate empty and missing or have you even thought about this?

    #2: M-Files should provide a data type such as Flag that is either missing or present with value Yes. When compared to the current case with Boolean properties a reduction from four alternatives to two is noticed. With this data type, template documents and non-template documents can be specified more naturally, and searching both of these cases is easy.

    Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
Children
No Data
M-Files
M-Files Support


© 2025 M-Files, All Rights Reserved.