Quick filters and bulk actions

The Filters button in the toolbar opens a panel showing, for each field, which values exist in it and how many rows hold each one. That is a different question from the one the column funnel answers: the funnel narrows a column you have already chosen, while the panel shows the shape of the data before you choose — that only two Tier values are represented in what is on screen, that picking Linux would leave you eleven rows.

At a screen width of 1280 pixels and above the panel opens as a popover over the table; below that, as a full-height tray. The rows stay visible behind it and the row count in its header updates as you go — a selection has to be seen to take effect. The panel does not close when a value is ticked, because almost nobody ticks exactly one value.

The count beside each value

One filter's counts are computed after every other active filter, but without that filter's own selection.

The difference is practical. Having ticked Tier 1, a naive count would zero every other Tier, and there would be no way to discover that adding Tier 2 brings forty more rows — the option to add a second value becomes invisible. Here the counts inside that filter go on saying what a further selection would add, while every other filter still applies, so "Linux (312)" is not a global number that stopped being true the moment another column was filtered.

What the panel shows

• Each filter shows up to eight values and then +N more. The number is always stated; a filter that quietly shows the common values is how a user concludes that a value does not exist.
• Past ten values, a filter gains a search box of its own.
• Past 300 distinct values there is no list at all, and a contains box takes its place.
• A value that would return no rows in the current combination stays in the list, marked unavailable rather than disappearing. A selected value that vanishes is how you lose the ability to untick it.
• Hovering a value: Only this isolates it, Exclude keeps everything else.

Which filters are shown, and in what order, is set from the pencil at the top of the panel. That choice is stored in this browser only and resets to the page's default in one click.

The panel and the funnels are one state

What you do	What happens elsewhere
Tick a value in the panel	A chip appears in the chip row above the table
Remove the chip	The value is unticked in the panel
Save a view	The panel's selection is saved with it
Press Clear all	The panel empties

There is no second filter state to keep in sync — the panel, the header funnels and the chips all write to the same place. When the combination returns no rows, the panel says so, lists what is currently active, and offers to clear it.

Selecting rows

Tables that support bulk actions show a checkbox column. A table with nothing to act on in bulk does not show one.

• A selection is held by the row's identity rather than its position, so it survives a refresh of the data and does not move to a different row when a sort reorders the list.
• The selection is narrowed to what the filters allow. Select, then filter, and rows that are no longer on screen do not ride along into the action.
• Select all N filtered rows marks every row that passes the filters, across all pages — not the ones on screen. A "select all" that marks twenty-five out of eight hundred is the classic way a bulk action does a fraction of what was asked.
• The action bar appears only once something is selected, and the number it shows is the number the action will use.

Bulk edit

Bulk edit opens as a dialog rather than as an in-cell edit: pick a field, type the value once, and the button says Apply to N rows before anything is written. An in-cell edit that silently fans out to thirty rows looks like a defect the first time it happens.

• An empty box means clearing the value on every selected row, and the dialog says so in a warning before you confirm. On fields where an empty box means nothing at all, the confirmation is disabled instead of warning about a deletion that cannot happen.
• Past twenty rows a line is added reminding you how many records are involved. Twenty is also the threshold above which bulk actions ask for confirmation first — a confirmation on every three-row edit trains people to click through the one that matters.
• Rows that were not written are listed, and the dialog stays open. A failure report that closes with the dialog is a report nobody read.

Handing a selection to the scheduling wizard

A selection sent to the scheduling wizard is capped at 50 rows, so that the link stays a link. When there are more, the confirmation states plainly how many will be included and how many were dropped.