XF 2.4 Custom Field Improvements: Filtering and more!

With XenForo 2.4 we are finally addressing one of the most common pieces of feedback we get regarding custom fields which is filtering! But first, let's take a little look under the hood to see what else is new:

Flexible custom field types​

Each of the existing custom field types are now moved to their own individual handler classes and assigned to add-ons in the database. This opens the door for developers to finally introduce their own custom field types for their add-ons. So instead of being constrained to the defaults we provide, developers will be able to add all sorts of custom fields, each with different display and filtering options. Previously this was at best "tricky" to do in XenForo 2.3 but now any conceivable custom field type should be possible.

The flow for adding a new custom field is slightly different as you now start by picking the specific custom field type you are adding first. This is where you would see custom types too:

After selecting your custom field type, the process for creating that field will be familiar.

But let's take a look at the real reason you're probably here - filtering!

Custom field filtering​

When adding a custom field you can now, under "General options", toggle whether the field can be used for filtering. When enabled, the Filters menu on the thread list will now display filters for the filterable fields, alongside the typical filter options:

Once you populate your criteria and click filter, only threads matching those filters will be returned:

Coming soon...?​

There are some logical progressions from this including, but not limited to, more default custom field types and custom field searching but, while we cannot commit to anything today, I will just say it is something we're looking into

 

[Forsaken]

There doesn’t feel like there’s a reasonable use case for profile fields just yet. At least not for common use cases. Though an add-on could easily implement user filtering with field filtering. It’s the same system but because we don’t have a concept of filtering users or even displaying a full list of users by default it’s not that relevant. But yes possible with further development.

Roleplaying communities, and gaming communities will likely have a larger use case for profile field filtering. @The Dark Wizard may have some ideas.

 

[Mendalla]

Roleplaying communities, and gaming communities will likely have a larger use case for profile field filtering. @The Dark Wizard may have some ideas.

Yes, I can see this as well. I'm a member on rpg.net, which uses Xenforo, and being able to, say, find all the players of a given tabletop rpg or interested in a given genre would have value on a site like that.

 

[Alpha1]

position XenForo as a significant development platform and as a framework in its own right (which it is) rather than "just a forum".

I hope that this will mean that features eventually get implemented for all content types. i.e. if you add custom field types, then eventually make these available in any content type where they might be useful. I don't mean this as criticism, but I think such consistency would be to be benefit of the platform.

There doesn’t feel like there’s a reasonable use case for profile fields just yet. At least not for common use cases. Though an add-on could easily implement user filtering with field filtering. It’s the same system but because we don’t have a concept of filtering users or even displaying a full list of users by default it’s not that relevant. But yes possible with further development.

Some examples:
On xenforo.com it might be interesting to be able to filter for all service providers from country X that specialize in service Y and Z.
Some dating communities would benefit from profile filters.
I think many large sites could benefit from a profile filter on 'favorite forum' profile field.

In any case: custom fields filters is be a very welcome enhancement. Thanks!

 

[vbresults]

There doesn’t feel like there’s a reasonable use case for profile fields just yet. At least not for common use cases. Though an add-on could easily implement user filtering with field filtering. It’s the same system but because we don’t have a concept of filtering users or even displaying a full list of users by default it’s not that relevant. But yes possible with further development.

In hindsight, you previously made a strong case for searchable profile fields:

One thing we will do over time is... position XenForo as a significant development platform and as a framework in its own right (which it is) rather than "just a forum".

If a small handful of things like these custom field improvements including searchable profile fields, paid registration and itemized purchases are implemented, that vision of positioning XF as a framework could be a realized rather quickly.

At that point, I could see using a stabler XF for projects instead of WP and an assortment of third-party plugins. That would be pretty close to the strong position IC 4 had; taking away customizations in v5 could be an unexpected boon for XF.