how to save a filter in Dojo

Question

I have an EnhancedGrid that users regularly use complex filters on. Is there a way to allow users to save or bookmark a filter so they can easily re-apply it in future? I know I can programmatically set a filter, but I can't predict what filters my users will want.

Thank you!

edit: made some progress myself... using grid.getFilter() to return a JSON representation of the filter, then json.stringify(jsonRepresentation) to convert it into a string. Now I'm considering my options for how to store, load and convert that string. Would loading a string into a json object then applying it as my filter open me up to XSS vulnerabilities? If I want to have filters specified as arguments in the url, can I compress the string to reduce the character count?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 18 '13 at 10:39

How about cookies?

The grid widget has a cookie plugin(link), but id doesn't save the filter. Maybe extending the plugin or the grid could be an option.

Passing the filter properties as string also sounds like an option. Knowing the conditions, and the values that can be used, or their type, you can easily validate the filter before applying it to the grid.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

Right off the bat, here are the ~~two~~ three approaches I see:

Store the filter in a URL (Okay)

Simply get the window.location and parse out the query string using dojo/io-query::queryToObject():

require(['dojo/io-query'], function (ioQuery) {
    var uri = window.location.href;
    var query = uri.substring(uri.indexOf("?") + 1, uri.length);
    query = ioQuery.queryToObject(query);
});

(Documentation for dojo/io-query)

Store the filter in a cookie (Better)

The dojo/cookie module makes this very, very easy:

require(['dojo/cookie', 'dojo/json'], function (cookie, json) {
    var filter = { ... };
    cookie("myFilter", json.stringify(filter)); //store the cookie
    // json.parse(cookie("myFilter")); 
    // ^-- returns the cookie as a JS object
});

(Documentation for dojo/cookie)

Obviously, the user must have cookies enabled for this to work, but it's much cleaner than storing a bunch of variables in a URL for them to bookmark.

Use HTML5 Local Storage as suggested by Dimitri M: (Even better)

Check to see if the user's agent supports Local Storage, and if so, use that global variable to hold on to the filter:

require(['dojo/json'], function(json) {
    function supportsLocalStorage() {
        return ('localStorage' in window) && window['localStorage'] !== null;
    }

    var filter = { ... };

    if(supportsLocalStorage()) {
        localStorage.setItem("myFilter", json.stringify(filter));
    }

    // json.parse(localStorage.getItem("myFilter")) 
    // ^-- returns the filter as a JS object
});

An advantage in using web storage is that you can store much more data than cookies can.

You could conceivably use cookies as a fallback for browsers that don't support Local Storage, (i.e. when supportsLocalStorage() returns false) at the cost of adding a touch more overhead to your design, so ultimately it's your call, depending on what browsers you want to support.

Browser Compatibility for Web Storage

I would also recommend the HTML5 local storage (if he doesn't have to support older browsers). Storing it in a cookie means extra overhead since it's attached to every request you make to the server. — g00glen00b, Sep 20 '13 at 23:36
Thanks a lot for your help! I'm storing the answer in the URL because it's easy to share between users and if saved as a bookmark will last forever. I'll post more details when they're locked in, in case it's helpful to anyone. — WoodenKitty, Sep 22 '13 at 23:30

how to save a filter in Dojo

2 Answers2

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