If you don’t see the filter you need among the default options, don’t worry—there’s more available. Productboard offers advanced filtering capabilities that go beyond the basics, giving you access to additional filter types and greater flexibility to support even more complex board configurations.
In this article:
Adding advanced filters to a board
To add advanced filters to a board:
- Open the Board controls sidebar from the right side of the header. (If you've just created a new board, this sidebar will open automatically.)
- Click Add Filter > More filter options.
- Select a target—the item type you'd like this filter to act upon.
- Specify the condition, which must be a data type related to the target. (Your options here will change depending on the target.)
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Modify the parameters of your filter (is any of, is none of...).
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Select the values you want the filter to apply to. These values are options related to the condition set in step 4.
- (Optional) Click the Add filter button to set another filter according to steps 3-6 above.
- (Optional Click the AND logical operator to switch to the OR operator.
- When you're happy with your filters, click Apply filters. Your board won't change until you hit Apply, so make sure to click this button if you want to save the board's filters.
Note: When working with multiple filters, your logical operators (see #8 above) must be either AND or OR. You can't use both on the same board.
Filter behaviors
A filter will behave in one of three ways depending on the relationship between its target, its condition, and the structure of the board it’s being applied to.
Direct filtering
When the target and the condition both refer to the same item type, that item type will be filtered according to the condition.
For example:
The target and the condition both refer to the Feature item type, so this will filter out any features which aren’t owned by Linda.
Connection filtering
You can have the target and the condition refer to different item types, as long as those item types are connected—that is, they belong to the same category. One item type can belong to multiple categories. Here they are:
- Product category items are products, components, features, and subfeatures.
- Objective category items are objectives, key results, initiatives, and features.
- Release category items are release groups, releases, initiatives, and features.
For example:
Remember, a filter always acts upon its target, not its condition. In this case. the target is ‘Products’ and the condition refers to features. They're different item types but they both belong to the product category. This filter will only show products that have at least one subordinate feature assigned to the ‘Released’ status.
Group filtering
This one needs some extra context. On the Board controls sidebar, you use the Items section to define the board’s main item and, optionally, any underlying items:
Depending on the board type, you might also scroll down to the Columns or Groups section and add some column items or group items (AKA swimlanes).
Group filtering is when your filter’s target is a column or group item, instead of a main or underlying item (as with direct or connection filtering).
Imagine we took the settings above and added the following filters:
Filter 1 is an example of group filtering, because the target (the “Now-next-later” release group item) is a column item. This means that the board generated by these settings would only have a single column—whichever release in the Now-next-later release group we specify as the value of that filter—and will therefore only show main and underlying items that are assigned to that release.
Filter 2 might seem like a group filter as well, since it refers to the group item called “Teams”. However, you’ll notice that while Filter 2’s condition refers to "Teams," its target is actually “Features”, which makes it a direct filter, not a group filter. This board will only show a single swimlane called “Product Data”.
What’s important to note about Filter 2 is that it isn’t acting on the swimlanes of the board as defined by the group item, “Teams”; rather it’s acting on the features displayed on the board, using the Team field of each feature to determine which ones should be visible. The outcome would look the same either way, but knowing the distinction can help you troubleshoot filters that seem to be malfunctioning.
Hiding empty items
Sometimes your filters will leave empty items on your board. For example, say you have a board that displays initiatives and features (Figure A), and you want to filter it so it only shows initiatives that have features which are 'In progress' (yellow squares). You apply a filter (Figure B), but the result (Figure C) isn't what you want; two initiatives ("Display Initiatives as a main item on the Grid" and "PM Entity Archive") are still visible, despite their nested features being removed by the filter.
Note: Items specified by filters will always be displayed, even if you're hiding empty items. For example, say you have Hide empty items checked and you add a filter to the board so it only shows features with the 'In Progress' status. Features with that status will still be displayed on the board, even if they're empty.
To hide those empty initiatives (or any items which have no valid subordinates according to your filters):
- Click Board controls at the top of the board.
- Under Items, check the box labeled Hide empty items.
Filter transitivity
When filtering for a target item type that can be directly or indirectly related to the condition item type, all directly- and indirectly-related targets are present in the result. This is called transitivity.
To clarify the terms here:
- Two items are considered directly related when one is the parent of the other.
- Two items are considered indirectly related if you can trace parentage from one to the other through one or more intermediate items (think about grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on).
Example: Say you filter a grid to only show features which are related to a specific objective, like so:
The result will show all of the following:
- Children (direct): Features which are directly related to the specified objective.
- Grandchildren (indirect): Features which are children of objectives which are, in turn, children of the specified objective.
- Great-grandchildren (indirect): Features which are children of initiatives which are themselves grandchildren of the specified objective.
Other transitivity situations include:
- Filtering subfeatures by a release will return not only the directly connected subfeatures but also any subfeatures which are indirectly connected to the release via features or initiatives.
- Filtering features by a product will return not only the directly connected features but also any features that are only connected to a child component of that product.
Note: This rule applies even if the parent entity type is not on the board. So a flat list of features filtered by a release will return the same features as if initiatives and features were shown on the board and filtered by the release.
See also