6. Product Filters and Views

fmProducts - Filters.

Store Manager gives you the ability to filter and sort data in a more useful order (product lists). Please find the following buttons and fields at the end of osCommerce Products Tool-bar:

Also you can use any of the column headings to filter items basing on any parameter.

The following topics are covered:

Let's check all filter options one by one:

Sorting and Filtering Data Using Column Headings

You can order your data using column headings in ascending or descending order as well as based on multiple column values.

1. Sorting osCommerce data is simply a way of automatically re-ordering items (rows) according to your needs. For instance, you may sort osCommerce product list alphabetically by product name, or sort a list of osCommerce products starting from the most expensive products to the cheapest ones. In order to sort items, simply click on osCommerce Product name (to sort alphabetically by name) or osCommerce Product price (to sort by price) headings and you'll see the way your list is arranged. If that column contains text, the list will be sorted alphabetically; if the data are numeric they will be sorted according to the digits included.
   1. For example: once you click on osCommerce Product ID column heading, you'll see the list of osCommerce products sorted by osCommerce product ID; once you click on osCommerce product name heading, you'll see products sorted in alphabetical order; etc.
   2. Also Store Manager allows you to rearrange columns according to your needs. For example, you would like to see osCommerce product name as first column, quantity and price next to the model name. In order to rearrange columns, simply drag any column header, and drop it where you would like to see it. Also you can hide or show columns using the list icon.

1. Another way to organize data is to filter them. A filter only displays data that meet a certain criteria, such as all records,osCommerce products with a specific price or status, etc. To do this, find the arrow next to the column header name. Click on the arrow and select the criteria that you would like to use as a filter (e.g. you would like to see all osCommerce products that are disabled at the moment). Check the corresponding check-box (in our case status is disabled and equal to value "1") and Store Manager will now display only the records that are disabled at the moment.

1. Also you can enable a few values as shown below:

1. Once the filter is applied, you can see its parameters at the bottom of the page next to customization option (see Custom filter options below).
1. You can also use the Custom filter tool to display only records with some specific values. For example, you can filter osCommerce products to display records that have a value greater than a certain number in the column that you are filtering, etc. These options are all available under the drop-down once clicking on "Custom..." option.
   1. To do this, find the arrow next to the column header name. Click on the arrow and select the "Custom..." option and you will see the following form:

1. It allows you to show the records that have a value greater than a certain number in the column that you are filtering, etc. In our case Store Manager will display only the records with price greater or equal to 5.00

Once any filter is applied, you can customize it according to your needs. Use Customize... button and you'll see Filter builder form that allows you to add new conditions and modify the current ones.

Also you can save your filters using Save as option or open any filter that was previously saved into file.

You can combine sorting and filtering options to see osCommerce products that meet very specific parameters.

Group by Box

Group by box option shows you a box on top that says "Drag a column header here to group by that column".

Whenever you drag any column header and drop it there (Status grouping is shown below). OsCommerce products will be grouped by this parameter, where condition appears as folders (marked in blue) and osCommerce products are listed after expanding any folder.

There's also a possibility to build a "category tree" using this filter type. Let's say you want to group all your osCommerce products by Status (In Stock or Our of Stock or enabled) and each Status by different Model. Simply drag Model header into the grey field and drop it behind Disabled field icon. Check an example below.

When you drag column header back it will be placed between the columns where you drop it.

Filter

Filter drop-down allows you to filter osCommerce products by category selected in the left pane (Category tree) or to show all products at once:

1. Filter by Selected Category. This filter is selected by default. It is useful to see all osCommerce products that belongs to any specific category. It also helps to browse your categories easily. Please note that some osCommerce products may not be assigned to any category so you will not be able to see them using this filter type.

1. Show All Grouped filter allows you to see all osCommerce products that you currently have at your store. Category column is added to osCommerce products section once this filter type is selected. If the value is empty here, it means that osCommerce product doesn't belong to any category at your store.
2. Also you can create your own filter and apply it in the future. In order to Create a new filter, please go to Search form, specify search criteria and use search results to filter data. Click here for details. Once the filter is applied you can select it from the filter drop-down or delete it from the list using Delete osCommerce product filter button

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By eMagicOne Inc.