Review of table filtering & design

[sksmi]

Issue Often can't access/view data in tables efficiently and csv download not always avail. As a general rule, I think almost all users have different approaches they like to take for interrogating data eg. by sorting/filtering on different columns - any steps towards more csv-like functionality & consistency between table formats would likely be very much appreciated. Let me know if/when you get to this issue and I can compile examples/use cases from others.

Design considerations:

• filter design is a bit clunky at the moment, a re-design would be a nice to have:
• sorting order esp. with null/empty, as often want to sort on multiple columns but the nulls don't make logical sense
• consistency between table formats, download options

Couple of quick examples:

• currently can't order classifications grid by genomic position so can't see adjacent/nearby classifications (also can't filter by share level which would be lovely)
• csv download NA on gene variants grid https://runx1db.runx1-fpd.org/genes/view_gene_symbol/A2M
• tagged variants & classified variants on patient/sample pages different format, nice to have in 1 table as no way to compare between the two e.g. if I see a tag I can't work out if the variant has been classified from that page (https://runx1db.runx1-fpd.org/patients/view_patient/170) Part of #33?

Low - mod priority. Think it will likely make users happy and analysis more efficient, but not critical.

[davmlaw]

The filter you have in the screenshot is from jqGrid - the old table library most of the old grids are in.

The plan is to move to data tables (currently used by classifications and event log)

[TheMadBug]

True, but I haven't developed a standard filter for Datatables. Though it's default method of filtering (that I think I've disabled everywhere) is a single text box. The code can automatically filter looking for columns containing the string, or that method can be overridden.

Most other auto filtering solutions I've looked at for Datatables are client side only, so we'd probably have to develop something ourselves.

[davmlaw]

In a magical world, I'd like something like this:

class ClassificationDatatableConfig(DatatableConfig):
    form_class = ClassificationGridForm

Where the form is made into an ajax form, and changing (or clicking a filter button) populates query params from the form then refreshes the grid.

[davmlaw]

Bump, added to 3.1 Milestone as Sarah thinks important